That Other City
by Trisket Trange
Summary: Please read the disclaimer.
1. Chapter 1

**I always get permission whenever I post these. :) Thanks, _ssjelitegirl_!**

"This'll be good." Shad grinned, earning glares from everyone else.

"The life of our princess is at stake here and you find it amusing?" hissed Harfu as they hurried down the corridors. Jazan wasn't directly running but he was very fast-paced nevertheless.

Nightsteed grumbled to himself. "Dunno, he's a newcomer. He doesn't know Nabile. As long as he keeps the sword _between_ them, fine, but the minute he puts in on her throat, I don't envy him."

They had come to a big oaken door in the meantime. It was richly carved and had a very impressive portico, apparently the rooms had been reserved for queens long before Nabile's time. Jazan simply whacked the door open, robes still flapping around his feet.

"...and the minute I get – there you are. Took you long enough," announced Nabile. "And it's my door you're kicking there, thank you very much."

She was standing in the middle of the thick Sakhmetian carpet, still fully dressed despite the late hour. Artus was facing her, pointing the tip of the old crooked sword at her neck. The room was lit by a few candles but generally looked like Nabile had just been reading a book before bedtime when the unwanted visitor had stormed in.

"Ah, Your Highness," said Artus, squinting at the troop in the doorway. He was still mainly keeping an eye on Nabile and now sidled towards the door to prevent her from rushing over. "How nice of you to join us."

"Great, now he's gonna go all supervillain," stated Shad. His yellow eyes were gleaming right near the floor, next to Jazan's white robe which was occasionally flashing black as the prince's anger was picking up. "They always do. The big boss is taken out and the little sidekick gets his chance to shine."

"I'm not some sidekick, you stupid brat!" bellowed the Acara. He was nothing like the nervous scholar now. "And you stay back or the princess gets it," he snapped, as Jazan had taken a step forward.

"Alright, alright," hissed the prince, who had in fact had no intention of stepping forward. "Stop pushing me, you morons!"

"Sorry," muttered Saura, backing against the door jamb and stretching himself to see better. Harfu and Meira were stretching their necks behind Jazan's back. Nightsteed was behind everyone else, shaking his head and moaning to himself.

The look on Artus's face changed. It was now the look of a cornered beast. The door was blocked and there was a mob outside and he was only a small-scale mage. "I only wish to leave the city, Highness," he pleaded. "I'll never show my face here again. I promise."

"Promise, eh? What did Drefu promise you?" asked the prince, his eyes darting from Artus to Nabile and back again. "Wealth? Knowledge? The spot of an advisor? They never keep their promises, kid, don't you know? You were just a tool."

"No!" snapped the island Acara, the sword now slightly trembling in his hand. Nabile, whose throat was very close to the pointy end of the trembling blade, shot a stern glare at Jazan.

"I could take you out where you stand, and you wouldn't have the time to harm her," said Jazan, his voice now calmer and the robe back to fully white.

"Then why haven't you done it yet?" barked the Acara with a lopsided grin, taking a step closer to the princess. The sword was still trembling.

Saura looked back at Nightsteed, who seemed confused. But he did nothing at the moment, waiting to see what Jazan would do.

The prince simply stepped back, causing some nervous stumbling behind him. "You want to leave? Fine. Just don't harm Nabile."

Artus grinned with relief, then darted forward and grabbed Nabile, sealing her arms behind her back with one hand and using the other hand to set the sword against her throat. "Oh, don't worry, Your Highness. I'll leave her somewhere in the desert when I'm far enough."

"You little...!" fumed Nabile, bending her head backwards to get as far away from the sword as possible. She struggled for a second, then leaped in the air, using Artus's grasp as a point of support, and whacked backwards with both feet. It was a blind kick, but the Acara was right behind her anyway.

Artus gave a quiet sound that more or less went 'ghngh' and collapsed on the floor. The sword landed with a thump.

"Told you," stated Nightsteed.

"And told you it'd be fun," stated Shad, grinning widely. Nabile brushed over the carpet to face her husband.

"He was right," she stated, eyes narrowing. "And you were right. Why didn't you take him out while he was still facing me?"

Now Jazan really grinned. "It was more interesting to watch you handle the situation."

The Ixi stared at him, then huffed and punched him in the arm. Jazan only laughed.

"Highness," began a hesitant voice and the Kyrii looked back at Harfu's worried face. "I, uh, would like to apologize. I was of no use today. I came along with the wish to help but I was just a burden."

"Goodie, one of those sulky-guilty-types again," grumbled Nightsteed. "You did fine, kid. You came to support, and you supported, didn't you? Fancy sword tricks would've gotten you killed. You saw what we faced today."

Jazan smiled. "What he said. You did support, Harfu. You came along, to face something more powerful one could ever imagine. That's more support that sword tricks."

"Cute," said Nabile, nudging the cowering figure of Artus on the floor. "I'd actually be very grateful if you were so supportive right now to get rid of him."

"Yes, Highness," nodded the white Ixi, hurrying in and picking the Acara up. "Where do I take him?"

Jazan and Nightsteed exchanged glances. "The catacombs wouldn't hold him," said the Uni.

"Spells do," grunted Jazan, raising his arm. Nothing seemed to change, but a shade of hopelessness slid over the Acara's face as the spell took over. "Now all we have is Deki to take care of."

"Highness, if you please," said Harfu as they went back through the dark hallways, Artus still hanging on his hooves, "Deki's not a bad guy. I know him. He may have fooled us but he's not bad at heart."

"Even if so, you realize that he has no place in this city after tonight," grunted Nightsteed in Jazan's stead. "The people of Qasala know about the deal. They won't trust him any more."

Harfu nodded grimly and fell quiet for the whole way back to the staircase in front of the palace. When they came outside, the square silenced. It hadn't been loud to start with, but some angry murmuring was unavoidable. Deki was floating in the air, a faint bluish energy sphere surrounding him. He probably would've flown off a while ago if many of the Qasalans hadn't had wings. Now they fluttered all around him, glaring fiercely, unable to break through the sphere but still able to prevent him from escaping.

"Deki," called Jazan, and the sphere descended, followed by more angry murmuring and Scordrax's curious sniffing. The gigantic Scorchio was sitting next to the staircase, both heads raised high, and bent his necks down to gaze at the sphere as it came down.

"So it's over," said Deki as he landed. He didn't sound bitter, just somewhat sulky.

"Did you have any plans for what you'd do when everything fails?" asked Jazan.

The Scorchio grinned faintly. "Just counting on your mercy, Your Highness."

Jazan seemed thoughtful. "Well. Right now the catacombs are the only option." He flicked his fingers absently and Deki, developing the same hopeless gaze as Artus had, collapsed on the staircase, his body refusing to obey him now. "And, no offence, Harfu, but Nightsteed will be taking him down there. You're taking care of Artus. Shoo, both of you."

"You sure you can handle these issues without me backing you up?" Nightsteed joshed, shifting Deki's limp body on his back. Jazan shot a half-smile, half-glare at him before turning to the mob on the square. They had started murmuring again, but now everyone fell quiet.

"People of Qasala," Jazan's deep voice boomed over the square.

"Hoo boy, now he's going to get all prince-ish," muttered Shad. "Do we really need to stick around?"

Saura looked around. Harfu and Nightsteed had disappeared into the palace. Meira and Nabile were still there, but near the doorway, in the shadow of the pillars. The two brothers were standing pretty much alone next to the prince.

"Ehh," he did, sidling towards the palace wall.

"Please stay," said Jazan, and the two froze where they stood. "And Nabile, and Meira, and everyone on this square. I owe you all," he spread his arms, "my sincerest apologies. And my deepest gratitude."

"Mrawgh," mumbled Shad, scorching in the curious gaze of thousands of citizens and edging closer to the palace wall. Saura did the same.

And Jazan spoke. It was a short, yet moving speech, a speech that thanked everyone in Qasala simply for being Qasalans, for staying true to the city and loyal to its values. He barely explained the showdown with Drefu Arafat but he did mention the name and the reasons, causing a surprised and disbelieving rumble. He thanked everyone for their support, causing sheepish muttering as everyone remembered their recent accusations all too well. And he gave them a sincere, binding promise. A promise to be a good leader who never forgets his duties again.

By the time he finished, Shad and Saura had backed next to the girls in the shade of the pillar, all too aware of the curious masses. Those tourists had seen things. They had been there. They knew first-hand what had happened.

"And let me direct your attention to those two tourists," began Jazan, turning around.

"I'm already getting more attention than I like, thanks very much," barked Shad, drooping against the stones. "And I ain't accepting no awards or something like that. We did nothing remarkable, y'hear?"

"Well, I beg to differ," Jazan smiled, "but if you want no redundant attention, then I understand. I just want you both to know that I'm very thankful."

"No problem, Highness, just don't declare us local heroes or anything or we'll never be able to come to Qasala as tourists again without being overrun by a mob," stated the Lupe, his tail waving on the stones.

Jazan burst into laughter. It was a happy, full-hearted, releasing laughter, something the city of Qasala hadn't heard for a very long time now. A cheer rose from the crowd, rocketed across the square and turned into a roar of joy.

"I feel so happy for them," said Nabile. The brothers turned to look at her. "They're the citizens of a forgotten city. The people of 'that other place in Lost Desert'. And still they're proud and happy for their city and their ruler."

"They have all the reason to be." Meira smiled.

"People!" called Jazan, raising both hands and calming the crowd down a bit. "It's getting late. You should all go to sleep."

"Are you kidding?" a voice emerged from the people. "You just whooped some evil mage's behind. This calls for a celebration!" That statement was greeted with more cheers and some Neopets hurried off to wheel out barrels of Juppie juice and Qandos.

"There goes the sleeping schedule of my people," said Jazan, coming to the little group by the pillar. "But I guess they have all the reason for it. Shall we go too?"

The others stared at him.

"What, to party with the people?" asked Nabile.

"Why not?" Jazan grinned. "You all said that I've been away from the people for too long. And I think we have enough Coffee of the Dead for now."

xxx

When Harfu and Nightsteed came back, the staircase was empty but the whole square was crowded. Fires had been lit here and there to roast huge chunks of meat, music was playing and the people were happily dancing through the night.

"This whole show ended better than I expected," admitted Nightsteed, coming down to the crowd where Shad and Saura were sitting on the last step, both munching on a pie. "Where's Jazan?"

"The show's just beginning." Shad grinned with his mouth full and pointed at a row of konga where Jazan whirled around in the middle of the row, white robe seeming orange in the blaze of the big fires.

Nightsteed's eyebrow twitched. "From one extreme to the other. But it's a good sign, I suppose."

Shad gulped down the mouthful and looked up at him. "What I don't get is how this was all so... easy. I mean, here we had Jazan mentally drifting away from Qasala and causing all that trouble, and the minute Scordrax starts wreaking havoc, he's back in action and better than ever. What did you tell him to achieve that?"

The Uni grinned vaguely and turned his head away. "Not much. He didn't need much. Until that point he had never believed that there actually was a threat. When your twenty-ton pet starts burning down the city, it doesn't get much more threatening than that. Drefu underestimated him greatly. Playing with mental levels is always tricky, as there are simply too many levels."

"What, so Drefu would actually never have been able to break Jazan's bond with Qasala?" asked Saura, looking up too.

Nightsteed scowled at him. "Do you ever pay attention? Of course he would. If Qasala's support to Jazan had ceased, he wouldn't have had any mental power to withstand the attack. Now if you'll excuse me, I see Tchea fruits over there..."

That night was long, and beat the Night Bazaar by a long run. A lot of food was eaten, a lot of music was played, many dances were danced and nobody cared that there were no wealthy tourists in town. They had two tourists who were as good as locals now, and they had their home.

xxx

Not all of them had Coffee of the Dead, though, so the morning of the next day was as quiet as the previous one had been.

"Suits me," stated Saura, handing the ribcage cup back to Meira. "That way we can leave today without getting run over. I like those Qasalans but I've had enough patting on the back for one day."

They were sitting around the breakfast table, the sun shining in through the high windows as usually. The delegates and advisors were curiously and as politely as possible gazing at the royal end of the table where Meira had brought Jazan, Nabile and the two brothers some Coffee of the Dead. Nightsteed had used his own sources earlier that day.

"Planning to leave so soon?" asked Nabile.

"Well," said Shad, licking stew off his jaws as he had fallen asleep straight into his plate, "we've been here for two days, fulfilled our goal of, erm, bringing the two malicious spellbooks down here, and helped save Qasala or so the prince claims. I think we can maybe do some very quick sightseeing later this morning and then hit the road. It'll be a long journey."

"What will happen to Artus and Deki?" asked Saura.

"Already gone," said Jazan. "Nellera, the Faerie delegate left this morning, and we sent the two along to Faerieland with her. The Faeries know powerful magic; they're able to keep them under control. They'll probably work in Fyora's castle for the rest of their days."

"Reminded me, Highness," said Meira, who was still there with the tray. "Harfu requests himself to be transferred to Faerieland. Fyora's castle can always use good guards and he believes that it'll be a valuable experience for him."

"Ah," said Nightsteed in a friendly voice. "Friendship."

Meira blushed slightly. "I told him that Deki wasn't much more than a traitor, but he said that he was. That he was a friend."

"Well, I see no reason why we should deny the request." Jazan smiled. "Actually we should arrange an exchange instead of a transfer. Would be nice to see new faces around the city more often. Mmh, I need a new External Affairs... Khnumeran, Marago, do some thinking about it; I'll have a word with you about that later." The two advisors nodded. "And I should rearrange my schedule a little. I'd like to make it to this Friday's Night Bazaar. Meeting people is so... interesting."

The others, who remembered pretty well how Jazan had gotten sick because of drinking too much sweet Qando juice last night, grinned slightly.

"What about the spellbooks?" asked Saura. "Do you want to keep them? 'Cause I see no reason for taking them back and they'll probably be safe in your library."

Jazan nodded. "Yes, I'd like to keep them. Haven't really had a chance to read about the place my mother came from. Nightsteed, are we able to arrange some sort of a decent transport for our guests? We sent the two traitors off in a flying carriage but the heroes of Qasala are looking at weeks in a caravan."

The Uni scowled slightly. "Well, I'm definitely not flying them over myself, I need to stick around and make sure you won't get yourself in trouble." A wave of smiles spread over the table-company. "We should have a few carriages, yes. I'll look around for more or less awake volunteers after breakfast. Mystery Island, right?" The brothers nodded. "Faerieland's right on the way, might as well send Harfu off with them."

Jazan seemed thoughtful. "Now that I think about it, Scordrax doesn't really get all the exercise he needs..."

Nightsteed stared at him. "You're kidding me."

o C o

"Bye!" yelled Shad, waving frantically. "We'll definitely come again some day!"

"Shad, one can barely see the city by now." Saura grinned, sitting back on the red and golden seat. They were alone in the carriage; Harfu was outside by the coachman, a fellow palace guard who was leading Scordrax. The Scorchio was three times as big as the carriage so he had to be lead well in order for the carriage to fly straight. Qasala had indeed become a shiny golden and white spot in the middle of the desert by now, the river of Lost Desert was a glittering blue ribbon and the sea was already to be seen farther ahead.

"This didn't turn out so bad," stated the shadow Lupe, pulling his head in. "Shall we go again one day then?"

Saura thought of the two action-packed days, the curse, the threats, the intrigues, the battles, the magic, the suspicions... all eclipsed by the cheery people of Qasala, the royal couple, Nightsteed, Harfu, Meira, the gang in the Silver Scamander, even the stern gaze of queen Ara in the old dusty painting.

"I'd love to." He grinned.


	2. Chapter 2

It was noon and the sun was now mercilessly burning the sandy plains of Qasalan territory and the banks of the great river. The barge had stopped to make an extended break – even though the river continued and eventually flowed into the sea, the merchants never went farther than the city of Qasala as there simply wasn't anywhere to go – the landscape continued as uninhabited plains that only had a few desert Petpets here and there.

Shad and Saura, having waved goodbye to the friendly skipper, set off to the city that loomed in the distance just like Sakhmet had some hours ago. Qasala, however, seemed different. It was older and grimmer, completely unlike the inviting white walls and golden towers of Sakhmet.

"So where is that friend of Tsuki's?" asked Shad.

"He didn't know," replied the Zafara, adjusting the belts of the leather bag that was thrown over his shoulder. "They haven't been in touch since that friend moved away. But we have a name – Artus. He's an Acara, painted Island. And that's about all we have to work with."

Shad's ears moved quickly back and forth. "Well, those scholarly people and librarians are one big system, aren't they? Kinda like the Thieves Guild or bank managers. Everyone knows everyone. Let's go ask at their local bookstore, they might know."

Saura nodded in agreement and they entered the city. It indeed wasn't as pretty or exotic-looking as Sakhmet but still extremely impressive. The streets were dusty and crowded, most people seemed to be local and thus Qasala didn't have that strange aura that always comes along when two cultures mix, the aura of old and new, strong contrasts that form one whole picture. Street merchants weren't trying to foist cheap junk to wealthy tourists as it always happened in Sakhmet but haggled quietly with locals, following their old customs both sides knew very well. Wealthy tourists didn't sail down the streets, making loud comments about dirty locals – apparently tourists really were rare in Qasala as the brothers drew many curious looks when they plunged into the crowd.

Saura's eyes darted back and forth in the mass of Neopets, examining people as they elbowed along. There were pickpockets, ready to nab anything they could get their paws on and already eyeing his backpack, quickly looking away as the Zafara's eyes met theirs; there were small gangs of skinny young Neopets who had just begun to find their place in life and whose laughter echoed over the everyday chatter on the streets from time to time; there were majestic housewives doing their daily grocery shopping, usually with a few kids and maids following them to carry all the goods; there were Neopets who looked ordinary enough at first sight but who didn't need to elbow through the crowd as everyone gave them way as soon as they spotted them and whose proud, self-confident, yet friendly and benevolent eyes suggested that they were some higher-ranked, well-known and loved advisors or politicians at the city.

"So how are we going to find the scrollery?" asked Shad. "I know that they had some huge house near the palace to serve as a bookstore but I've never been to Qasala before."

"Might as well go down there and ask someone," guessed his brother. "All streets lead to the palace, y'know."

The main city square of Qasala was practically empty. Street merchants kept off the area that had been reserved for kings and queens for centuries, pickpockets knew better than to mess with palace guards and locals didn't come to the palace without a reason, and they rarely had that reason these days now that Qasala was well back on its way to former prosperity. Saura stopped a Ruki on his way: "Excuse me, which way is the bookstore?"

"Right over there," answered the Ruki, pointing at a vast house that reminded them more of an additional wing to the Royal Palace than a bookstore. He remained standing and watching the two curiously as they went on. Tourists really seemed to be a rarity even around the palace, which was after all the most beautiful building in the whole city.

The two brothers stopped in front of the orange building and almost cracked their necks looking up the long staircase. The doorway was far away, yet so big that it was clearly visible. So were three words carved in stone above the dark door, reading "WORDS OF ANTIQUITY".

"I wonder if those library people are smart enough to put some buckets of water up there by the other end of the staircase?" huffed Shad, climbing up what had to be the three hundredth step. "This is crazy!"

"But it has a good view." His brother smiled. "Look."

The Lupe stopped to squint eastward at the wide plains, the golden towers of Sakhmet and the bright white sun that shone above it all in the clear azure sky. Actually, now that he wasn't climbing any more, he could feel the cool breeze that came from the plains – it didn't reach the maze of narrow streets down in the city.

The door of the scrollery looked really expensive, mainly because it was made of wood, which was of short supply in the Lost Desert, so once the door was made for the house, the builder had done everything to make it look worth its price. It was carved, decorated with gold, and had two handles the size of Shad's head. It wasn't heavy to push, however, and the brothers sneaked in to find themselves in a vast hallway under majestic arches held up by marble pillars. It was cooler in here and a lot dimmer, compared to the bright daylight outside. A small fountain was gurgling merrily in the middle of the lobby and Shad, having let out a happy bark, dove in face-first.

"Shad, mind your manners!" yelled Saura, then sighed and rubbed his forehead. Most people found it hard to believe that the Lupe was, in fact, his older brother. No wonder too.

"Don't worry, it happens often." The Zafara turned around to face a yellow Nimmo in a purple cloak. "Most of the visitors aren't that... eager, though."

Saura grinned apologetically. "He just is like that." It was only now that he noticed wooden shelves and a counter painted golden and red a few steps left to the main entrance. Apparently it was the bookstore, small and insignificant compared to the gigantic building. Shad got away from the fountain and came to the two, his jaws dripping and his tail wagging frantically; his inner power sources had been recharged.

"Heya," he greeted the Nimmo. "We're looking for an island Acara named Artus. Can you help us?"

The Nimmo frowned. "Artus, Artus, doesn't ring a bell. Who exactly is he?" Having heard that the Acara in question had recently moved into Qasala, his face lit up. "Ooh, then my wife must know. She knows everything about newcomers... give me just a minute." He hurried off and returned shortly with a chubby spotted Korbat by his side.

"It's so nice to see tourists around here from time to time," the Korbat greeted the brothers, her eyes gleaming happily. "How do you like our city so far?" She didn't even listen as Shad and Saura quickly praised the city as she blabbed on: "It can get so boring in here, you know, new faces are always so lovely to see... yes, dear?"

"They're looking for someone called Artus, an island Acara," said the Nimmo. "Do you know anything about him?"

"Familiar name," admitted his wife. "Let me think... oh yeah, an Acara with a similar name came to work in the library of the Royal Palace a few days ago, or so I heard from Fiora, such a sweet girl, too bad about that thing with her parents..." The Nimmo coughed impatiently. "Right, Artus, I think that was the name, yes. He became the assistant of the librarians as I recall. Would you like to meet him?"

"Yes, please," said Saura, still trying to catch up with the pre-last sentence in his mind.

"I'll take you to the palace," stated the spotted Korbat. "The guards most likely won't let you in if you go on your own. Not that they'd be very paranoid," - they left the building as the two brothers waved goodbye to the Nimmo - "but you see, you're still strangers and they can't just let everyone in; that'd be bad for their reputation and you'll never know about strangers anyway, not that I mean that you two are some crazy maniacs; you're both really nice kids," - they went down the long staircase - "but you see, my son works as a palace guard and I wouldn't want anything to happen to him," - and crossed the city square - "you should meet him, really, actually you will soon; I think it's his shift now if I'm not mistaken, ooh, there he is now!"

When the bookstore entrance had seemed majestic, the Royal Palace surpassed it by a long shot. Red and golden pillars stretched towards the sky, strong memories from a time long forgotten, and two guards leaned against them, chatting loudly as the distance between the pillars was too big for normal talking. As the guards spotted the three Neopets stepping closer, they stopped and raised their lances but lowered them quickly.

"Look, Harfu, it's your mom," said a young slender fire Scorchio. "Hello, ma'am."

"If that isn't young Deki!" exclaimed the Korbat. "My, you've grown so big since I last saw you!" The Scorchio stepped back with a sheepish grin as his friend Harfu took a step forward with an equally sheepish grin. He was a white Ixi, lank and tall, and the fact that he stood on his hind legs only added to the height. "Hi, mom," he said.

"Harfu, my boy, it's so good to see you guarding the palace like this, all brave and strong and proud!" squeaked his mother, jumping forward to hug the Ixi. Deki the Scorchio turned away to hide a wide grin. Shad and Saura exchanged amused glances.

"Listen, those two boys here," stated the Korbat, letting her son go, "are looking for someone named Artus, an island Acara. He works in the palace's library; you will let them in, right?"

Harfu scowled. "Mom, I can't really let strangers wander around the palace all by themselves, even if I let them in." He glanced at the two brothers. "Now if you two are willing to wait until my shift ends, I could show you around; otherwise we cannot let you pass."

"That's okay, we have time," said Saura.

"Too bad I don't. I promised to meet Mara this afternoon; she got those recipes I wanted," said the Korbat. "Well, be a good boy then, and you too, Deki, and good luck to you two, toodles!" She fluttered off over the rooftops, leaving Harfu and Deki behind with semi-ashamed, semi-confused looks on their faces. Shad and Saura exchanged quick glances again and then sat down on the marble staircase.

"My mom is hopeless," moaned the Ixi. "Listen, you two, I really wish you didn't have to collide with this palace's rules like that, but if I let you in on your own, you'd get lost very fast and I can't leave my post before the shift is over."

"Besides, Nightsteed would have our heads," added Deki. "He's been so paranoid lately. If it was up to him, we'd have to search every single person who enters the palace, including prince Jazan himself."

"Why so?" asked Saura, looking back at the two.

The guards shrugged. "No idea," said Harfu. "He's been acting strangely these days. Goes out at sunset, comes back when the sun rises, glares at everyone, suspects everyone and nobody really has a clue what his suspicions are. He has no real power in the palace, otherwise he would've arranged something drastic ages ago, mark my words."

"Who is he anyway?" asked Shad. "I mean, I know who he is, we heard about the story with Razul and everything but who is he in the palace?"

"Something like an advisor," replied Deki the Scorchio. "He doesn't have a direct rank so basically he's a civilian but in reality he's on the same level as Jazan himself. Complicated for lower-class guards like us but we need to accept it – though Jazan's generally known as the most powerful mage in Qasala, Nightsteed's in no way less skilled than him and getting on his wrong side would be a very bad idea."

They fell quiet for a while. Saura slid down a few steps to lean his back against the stairs and nodded away in a trance-like sleepy state. Shad had backed to the shade of one gigantic pillar. The guards stood where they were, the sun mercilessly burning their fur and black-gold-red armor, though as the Lupe noticed, neither guard seemed to be too disturbed by the heat. No wonder – Deki was a fire Scorchio and Harfu's white coat reflected most of the heat back. Time ticked by. The square in front of the palace seemed strangely empty, even though Qasala was rather tightly populated.

A bell tolled somewhere in the depths of the palace and the two guards came to attention at once. Shad looked out from behind the pillar and Saura turned around to see two new guards march out from the castle, stop right by Harfu and Deki, salute, reach out their lances, clash them together – in short, the new guards stopped by the pillars as the Ixi and Scorchio marched off into the palace. A moment later Harfu showed up again, this time without his lance. "Come on in, you two."

As the two brothers plunged into the cool, dim depths of the vast hallway, the new guards leaned against the pillars and yawned widely, curiously squinting at them.

"Traditions?" Saura asked with a grin.

"Indeed," replied the Ixi. "This time they actually proved to be useful... in most cases we have no audience whatsoever. A bit silly if you ask me but rules are rules."

They turned left at some pillars that looked exactly like all the other pillars they had already passed. Harfu had been right – anyone who didn't know the place would've gotten hopelessly lost in five minutes. A wide staircase took them to a hallway that faced the courtyard and was bordered with huge glassless windows. The long luxurious carpet seemed almost too expensive to step on and Harfu was indeed careful not to crumple it. He walked on his hind legs, thus towering a head above Saura who wasn't short at all.

When they turned around the corner, they suddenly faced a blue Uni who had been coming down the other end of the hall. Unlike most blue Unis, he had a dark blue mane and black hooves, and his eyes were grim.

"Sir," Harfu muttered hurriedly, stepping aside at once and bowing deeply. The Uni, who had stopped for a confused second, harrumphed quietly and hurried on, paying no further attention to the three and almost stepping on Shad's paw. He would've done it too if the Lupe hadn't jumped aside.

"Who the...!" Shad began in righteous fury but Harfu quickly hissed at him, perking his big Ixi ears up. The soft thudding of hooves disappeared down the hallway.

"That was him," said the Ixi. "Nightsteed. He's not unfriendly but he knows his place and expects others to know theirs. Like I said, he's been strange these days. Worried, if you ask me."

Shad and Saura stared at him, then peered back around the corner but the Uni had already disappeared. "That was Nightsteed?" demanded Shad. "But... come on, I've read about him, I've seen pictures of him. He's a cursed creature with bandages and wrinkled skin and everything!"

"He's also a shapeshifter," said Harfu, guiding them down the hallway again. "He can take the shape you just saw in daytime. At night he turns into the creature you've read about, but he always remains the same at heart. He was rather nice and quiet when I came to work here but he's changed a bit lately. But he's not a monster, if that's what you're thinking. He loves this city and its people, and looks can be deceiving, really."

Shad, who had the cheerful personality of a Snowbunny despite his shadow fur and studded collar, nodded in agreement. They had come to another staircase in the meantime and crossed another few hallways. Shad's nose and Saura's ears said that the palace was full of people – servants, maids, chefs, cleaners, messengers and everything else that makes a palace work but the place was simply so big that running into someone was a rare occasion.

"Here," said Harfu, pushing a door open. "The library."


	3. Chapter 3

The door had looked no different from any other doors in the palace, apart from the two carved Kougra figures holding scrolls on it. The library, however, was huge, stretching through three stories. The floors had been broken down to join the three stories into one room but by the walls and the bookshelves bordering them the original floors had remained as balconies on which dozens of scholars and advisors hurried back and forth to find a document, do research, or work with Qasala's old law system. It was a lively place, and apparently bigger than it seemed at first sight as the ornate roof stretched away over the maze of shelves farther left.

"If you need anything, come on downstairs and find me, the guards' wing is just by the main entrance, to the right," stated the Ixi. "Good luck." He closed the door, leaving the two brothers in the library and, hopefully, to the end of their long journey and weird adventures.

"Excuse me." Saura stopped a Quiggle rushing by. "We're looking for an Acara named Artus."

"Over there, by that shelf," replied the Quiggle and hurried off. The brothers went to the shelf where an island Acara was putting books back on the shelves.

"Excuse me," Saura began again, "are you Artus?"

The Acara turned around. He was at the age when you can't say "young" any more but "grown up" is still a bit farfetched. Despite the ferocious face paintings that come with the Island color, he looked friendly and a bit nervous. "Yes?"

"We're Tsuki's brothers," said the Zafara. "He sent you these books."

"Really? Oh, yes, yes, I remember." The Acara nodded hastily, curiously examining them both. "So nice to meet you, such an honor indeed, you went through so much trouble, you must be exhausted..." He took a few steps left and right, obviously not knowing what to do next. Eventually he put the remaining books in his lap on a nearby table, as small and loaded as it already was, and took the leather bag Saura handed him.

As the Acara opened the bag and took the books out, the two brothers observed him. It was hard to imagine this nervous critter being friends with Tsuki, the quiet and calm shadow Shoyru who spoke slowly and seldom. Yet they knew that friendship usually overlooks such things and Artus, despite his nervousness, seemed to be a nice and sincere Acara.

"Well, I must say, I truly am very thankful to both of you," he stated after quickly flipping through the tomes. "These are exactly what I wanted, yes, absolutely priceless for my work, I can't possibly thank you enough..." He bowed to the brothers as his eyes darted back and forth on them.

"Our pleasure," smiled Saura. "Well, we'd best get going then. It was nice meeting you."

"Pleasure's all mine, pleasure's all mine," assured Artus. "Be sure to pay me a visit again sometime; it'd be lovely." Suddenly his smile froze in his face and his eyes widened when the cheerfulness in them was replaced with a strange mixture of fear and awe. The library had fallen silent and the two brothers turned around quickly.

A pink Ixi in a long luxurious dress had entered the library. She was rather short and had come alone but her presence seemed to fill the whole room. Shad and Saura recognized her at once - no wonder too, with all the Neopian Times articles dedicated to her after she became the ruler of Qasala.

"Your Highness Nabile," whispered a nearby Mynci, kneeling down. The others followed his lead.

Nabile looked at all of them a bit impatiently. "Come on, there's no need for all that bowing and worshipping. I just want to know if Nightsteed came here a short while ago."

"Indeed, my lady," said a Tonu. "He left only a few minutes ago, after having spent about half an hour in the section of ancient writings."

"Which books did he ask for?" demanded the princess.

The librarians shrugged in regression. "We don't know; he worked alone there."

"A lovely bunch of scholars you all are," grunted Nabile, losing her patience for a second, then noticed Shad and Saura and her eyes widened in surprise. "Oh my." She stepped closer as dozens of pairs of eyes followed her. "You two are visitors, aren't you?"

"Yes, m'lady," said Saura, sinking a little closer to the ground – due to Zafaras' anatomy, kneeling is a bit tricky for them and he didn't feel like losing his balance either. Shad, who lacked respect in most aspects of life, just waved his tail a little and bowed his head. "We just arrived," added the Zafara, "and were actually about to leave. But as short as this visit was, it has been most stunning."

"And really cool," stated Shad with a wide grin. The scholars winced. Saura rubbed his forehead with a sigh. Nabile chuckled shortly.

"But you can't leave just yet," she said. "We rarely get visitors these days and the palace has plenty of room. I trust all my guards, and once they let you in, you should be reliable enough. Or are you in a hurry?" The brothers shook their heads. "Then you really should stay for a while – you will, won't you?" The brothers exchanged glances and then nodded. Why not? Once the princess of Qasala herself asked them to stay, it would be rude to decline the invitation, and they indeed weren't in a hurry.

"Lovely," decided Nabile. "I'll show you to the guest rooms in the western wing; just follow me." She left the library and the brothers followed her, leaving behind a roomful of overly confused librarians.

"You're being too kind, Your Highness," said Saura as they went down the hallway.

"Nah," shrugged Nabile, suddenly losing a lot of her proud and majestic aura. "Well, okay, guess I'm no stingy monster if you put it that way but this army of servants we have here won't even notice that you're around." She glanced back at them over her shoulder. "Guys, no need to be all your-highness with me, okay? I'm not much older than you and I spent most of my life being a street urchin and a petty thief in Sakhmet and all this royal worshipping is burying me alive, really." Nabile huffed. "In other words, I'm bored to death. As I said, we rarely get visitors these days and I barely know what's going on in the rest of the world, Dr. Sloth could probably conquer most of Neopia and I'd find out two weeks later. I miss my old friends, who wouldn't? And I miss the kind of life I used to have – okay, not the life of a thief but, you know," she waved her hands, "a life that's actually a life."

"Got it," remarked Shad, looking around in the vast, luxurious and above all very quiet hallway they were currently crossing. "And when you go outside to meet the people, they go all Your Royal Highness again?"

"Duh," stated the Ixi. "Not to mention that gang of bodyguards who follow me around. They make me really paranoid, y'know. Having someone behind your back every single second is downright creepy."

"So you're unhappy here?" asked Shad, once again making Saura wince because of his straightforward, slightly disrespectful attitude.

Nabile stared back at him, almost stumbling over another fluffy carpet. "Goodness, no! I love this city and its people, and I'm happy here with my husband, it's just that... you know, it's a different kind of life and there's nothing that can be changed with that." She gazed at the brothers, who were beginning to wonder if being a royal princess included the requirement of walking backwards most of the time.

"You will tell me about life in the rest of Neopia, won't you?" she pleaded. "It'd mean a lot to me."

"Will do," agreed the brothers.

Nabile smiled, pushing a door open. "You'd better not go back on your word." It was a light, friendly statement, yet something in her voice predicted that should the two really go back on their word, the results would be rather horrible. "Make yourselves at home, pulling this rope here by the door will call a servant who will be ordered to fulfill your every request." She nodded at the two and left.

Shad looked around and trotted off as Saura went to the window. It had no glass, just like all the other windows in the palace, and when he leaned on the windowsill, he could clearly hear the noise on the Qasalan streets outside. The window opened to the courtyard but was higher so the Zafara could see half of the palace's roof, the palm trees' tops in the courtyard and also behind the thick walls. Even the city walls were clearly looming farther away and the sandy dunes of Lost Desert stretched on behind them.

"Dude!" Saura winced as his brother galloped in again. "Nabile gave us a real suite! We have three bedrooms here, you know, all connected, and a study, and some fancy room that should probably be the bathroom, though I'm telling you, it's bigger than our kitchen back home. Which bedroom do you want?"

"Whichever you don't; guess they're all good," replied Saura.

Nabile had just got down the stairs when Nightsteed turned around the corner, stopping her. The Ixi was startled, thinking, "_I'll probably never understand how he always manages to find me in this huge palace..._"

"There are two strangers in the palace," said the Uni. "Harfu, that white Ixi guard, said that he took them to the library."

"A shadow Lupe and a spotted Zafara?" asked the princess. Nightsteed nodded. "I know, I met them there."

"Where are they now?" he asked. When he heard that Nabile had given them a room on the fourth floor, his eyes widened. "You let them stay _here_?"

The pink Ixi scowled. "Why not? It's been a while since I heard any news from outside Qasala and we have enough servants to feed an army; why not let them enjoy some Qasalan hospitality for a while?"

"Because you don't know who they are and what they want," hissed Nightsteed. "Stupid girl, you'd probably give Razul himself a room in this palace if he asked you nicely... what are we, some roadside tavern? At times like these we should double the guard, not let tourists walk in and out." He shook his wild mane. "I knew I should've stopped them and sent them back when I saw them in that hallway."

Nabile's eyes had narrowed during that speech. "Excuse me!" Her back straightened as a dark shadow of fury spread across her face. "I'm the princess of Qasala, Your Highness Nabile, and you have no right to speak to me like that!"

Nightsteed took a step forth, then another one and Nabile found herself staring into the deep, dark, old eyes of the blue Uni, eyes that had seen a lot more than her, knew a lot more than her and had more power than her.

"Wanna bet?" snarled Nightsteed, then turned away in a slightly derisive manner. "Fourth floor, you said?"

"Nightsteed!" That was all Nabile managed to shout before the Uni dashed out through the nearest window in the hallway. The princess huffed, then stomped off, her eyes flashing. Though Nightsteed had no official rank in the court, he seemed to consider himself equal to Jazan – and higher than Nabile, which had ticked the Ixi off more than once. Besides, he had become even less respectful these days, often snapping back to Jazan and defying his orders... not that the Kyrii prince gave many orders these days, come to think of it.

Nightsteed took a curve in the air at the same time, rising above the courtyard. He didn't really like flying; his wings were wrinkly and rotten most of the time and even when he had the shape of a normal blue Uni, he couldn't shake off the feeling that he was about to fall down. But he still could fly, and he used that ability whenever necessary.

"And _they're_ supposed to be the rulers and ultimate caretakers of Qasala," he hissed to himself as his senses picked up the two strangers. The Uni rose higher, spent a short second on aiming and dashed in through the window, flapping his wings and landing on his hind legs to keep the balance.

--

Nightsteed turned around to face Shad and Saura who had been engaged in an argument about whether to call for lunch or not. Now they had both fallen quiet, staring at him.

"Nightsteed," Saura said, recognizing the dark mane and black hooves. "Sir." He bowed slightly. Even Shad, who had viewed Nabile as one of their own age and rank, sank a little closer to the ground. This Uni was closer to royalty than Nabile would ever be, only by his attitude.

The room fell silent for a while until the Uni stopped observing them both and most likely making his own conclusions, though what they were and how they would affect the current situation remained unknown. Then he said: "I'd love to hear a little about you two, where you come from and why you're here."

Saura straightened himself and explained the story, giving a brief overview on their home, family, the plans for shopping they had left home with, the task they had got from their brother and the adventures they had had on their way to Lost Desert. When he finished, Nightsteed looked at him shortly, as if to make sure that he was indeed finished, then turned to gaze blankly at the ceiling. "Artus, Artus. Familiar name. I really can't remember each and every creature we have in here but why did I choose to remember his?" Suddenly his eyes darted back to the two brothers. "That skinny island Acara in the library, unable to stand still, talks really fast, has the eyes of a Cobrall?"

Shad and Saura looked at each other. "Yeah, though his eyes seemed friendly enough to me," said the Lupe.

Nightsteed's eyes narrowed.

"Wrong answer?" asked Shad, his ears drooping.

The Uni seemed thoughtful for a second. "Tell me," he suddenly said, "which tree grows right next to the Tropical Foods hut?"

Shad blinked as Saura said: "There was an Azzle tree there, but about a month ago it was broken down in a fierce storm as it stood so near to the coast, so the shopkeeper is currently growing Taokicarrots where the tree used to stand."

The Uni's face softened a little. "And in Neopia Central, which shop lies right next to that gallery where this brother of yours lives?"

"The bakery," snarled Shad. "That lady Marissa makes such delicious cakes that the scents can drive you insane even when you're sitting next door, and note that I'm a carnivore."

"No you're not; you'd eat anything that doesn't scream in your mouth and in case of spooky food that's no factor either," hissed the Zafara, peering at Nightsteed who looked a bit friendlier now, though it was a rather small bit.

"At least I now know that you two are who you say you are," he said and Saura couldn't help but be amazed - _how does he know that what we said was true? He must travel a lot, or know a lot of magic._ "But I have no reason to trust you two," added Nightsteed. "You're saying that you've never met Artus before?"

"Ask the scholars in the library how we acted when we were introduced," suggested Saura, trying to hide his disapproval. After all, Nightsteed most likely had a reason to be suspicious.

"What were those books?" was the next question.

"Spellbooks, well, one was just an old history book but it had magical power," remembered Saura.

The Uni muttered, "History books... indeed..."

"We didn't really look at the other book; that one was smaller and thinner."

"That one was a history book as well," interrupted Shad. "Mainly about some city, I think it was called Ara."

"Do you always need to stick your nose everywhere?" growled the Zafara.

Nightsteed scowled, turning to face them. "Blue covers? Made of Cobrall skin?"

Shad looked up. "Yeah."

The blue Uni moaned, shaking his bony head. "Just wonderful. Why me...?" He seemed devastated and confused for a moment, then came to a decision. "Fine then. Come here." They did so. "Now put your left paws on my horn." Shad had to rise up on his hind legs to do that as Nightsteed wasn't planning to lower his head for them, but they got it done. "Now listen, and listen carefully. Do you promise that you will never willingly harm the city of Qasala, its people, its way of life and order, never aid those who work against Qasala, never turn against Their Highnesses, never abuse their hospitality and never misuse the information you may get while staying here?"

"We promise," the brothers said.

Nightsteed's blue eyes focused for a second and then turned crimson. For just one faint moment his whole body changed; yellowish bone was to be seen through holes in his dark dry skin, partly covered by bandages, and transparent flames rose from his hooves without burning the floor. Then he changed back and stepped backwards, breaking the bond.

"I put an old curse upon both of you," he said. "Break the promise you just gave and you die. It won't be pretty, that much I can assure you. If you are who you say you are, then you have nothing to fear, but I have my reasons to be careful." He lowered his head a little – the biggest token of respect one could ever get from him – and left, this time through the door.

"Well, wasn't he nice," grumbled Shad, his yellow eyes still wide in shock.

"If he has reasons to be so cautious," Saura said with a frown, "then we may be in for a bigger adventure than we expected from this lazy city."

The two brothers spent quite a while talking. They had a lot to argue about. Having a deadly curse placed upon you isn't exactly something to be taken lightly.

"Looks like Nightsteed doesn't trust Artus one single bit," said Shad. "Dunno, he seemed like such a nice guy. You're better at seeing through people; did he really have the eyes of a Cobrall?"

"Depends what Nightsteed meant with that," muttered the spotted Zafara. "Cobralls are smart, you know that." Shad nodded, their sister had a mutant Cobrall. "But they're poisonous, and mean. And they don't show what they think."

Shad sat down. "Well, I doubt it was a compliment, seeing how Nightsteed reacted."

"Should we contact Tsuki about his friend?" Saura asked with a scowl. "If Artus is working against Qasala in any way, then I doubt Tsuki knows; he wouldn't approve of something like that. Then again, he might contact Artus to demand for an explanation and then we're in trouble... all we can do is to ask about that Acara in general."

The Lupe raised his paws. "Whoa, whoa, hold on now. Not again. Not this time. I'm not getting messed in some huge mission to save the whole land again. You remember what happened last time – we almost got killed! And now we're dealing with a 200-year-old Uni who's had all this time to perfect his skills and we have his curse floating above our butts and generally we should be darn careful about everything we say or do or we'll blow up. Whatever it is that's making even him worry, we should stay away from this."

Saura scowled. "So you're saying that we should enjoy Nabile's hospitality, tell her the news she wants to hear, keep away from the palace's intrigues, take a hike as soon as courtesy allows us to and let them deal with their own problems?"

"Exactly!"

A knock on the door stopped anything Saura was planning to say and a young brown Xweetok stepped in. "Greetings," she said, bowing. "I was ordered to take you to the dining hall to have lunch with Their Highnesses."

The Xweetok walked quickly and lightly, mainly on her hind legs just like Harfu and Nabile, though at staircases she jumped on the banisters and ran down on all fours, waiting downstairs as the brothers followed her. She was gentle and fragile, and her voice was quiet when she pointed at a statue or a vase here and there in the hallways, explaining how old they were and what they meant as they passed them, yet she seemed proud and confident, as much as a maid can afford those qualities. When she opened a gigantic door in a hallway that looked bigger and more luxurious than most others, she bowed again, said: "May the Faeries bless your meal," and left with a straight back, her mane flowing behind her like liquid chocolate.

The dining hall, though immense, somehow managed to look balanced and full of furniture. The walls were bordered with golden statues that varied with huge windows, there were huge palm trees growing in equally huge pots in each corner of the room, and the oaken dining table itself, though long, had two rows of comfortable chairs to counterbalance the effect. The room was light and all the golden surfaces were shimmering in the afternoon sun – and there were indeed many golden surfaces in that room.

Nabile was sitting by the table already. "Come, have a seat," she called. As Shad and Saura stepped closer, they could see that most seats were taken. The Neopets in them were apparently advisors, ministers and high-ranked scholars, though they also spotted a few ambassadors – a chubby Gnorbu in a robe that bore the colors of Brightvale and a tall Faerie. "You'll meet many fancy people there," the chocolate-furred Xweetok had explained on their way down, "but don't feel inferior in any way; the Highnesses always eat with their guests. It would be impolite to take food to their rooms or host them in the servants' table."

Nightsteed was there too, sitting in a slightly different chair that was designed for him. Shad's eyes met his for a second when they approached the table, bowed to the others and sat down. The Uni seemed... calm. Not suspicious, not apologetic or grim, but simply aware of the two visitors' presence and assuming that he wouldn't have to bother with them in the near future.

Nabile introduced the two to the table-company and then spent a good five minutes introducing everyone else. "Boy, this place is a lot fancier than that fortress we last visited," Shad whispered to Saura, peering around to make sure nobody felt offended by the whispering and nodding at the Grarrl who was currently being introduced.

"This is a different land and a different time," the Zafara replied. "But I like it here." He focused on the introductions, curious to hear about Nightsteed.

"Sir Khnumeran of Qasala, His Royal Highness' advisor." A fat mutant Gelert nodded and smiled widely. The brothers nodded back.

"Drefu Arafan, Qasalan external affairs." A skinny, grim Wocky nodded and gave a smile that didn't reach his eyes. The brothers nodded back.

"Nellera, the spokesperson for Her Highness Fyora in Qasala and the delegate of Faerieland." The Faerie nodded, seeming a bit tired. She was an Air Faerie and the warm, dry air seemed to make her lose her concentration.

"Nightsteed." The blue Uni glanced at the two brothers, his face showing no expressions whatsoever, merely recognizing their presence as much as he needed for the ceremony, then he looked away again, buried in thoughts. Nabile didn't add anything about him.

"Marago, the advisor of..." and so it went, politely and a bit lifelessly, until:

"Prince Jazan, His Royal Highness of Qasala and the ruler of these lands," finished Nabile, then added quietly: "They're the ones I told you about."

This was the first time the brothers got to take a good look at prince Jazan. The red Kyrii was leaning against the back of his chair, his simple-looking white robe bordered with gold and his orange eyes bordered with black. He gave a short glance at the two brothers at Nabile's words, gave a quiet "mhrmmh" and his eyes turned blank again. He seemed bored, and as tired as the Faerie delegate.

"It's an honor, Your Highness," said Saura, feeling that he should say something.

Jazan glanced at him again, this time nodding slightly, then he leaned forward. "Nice, can we start eating now?" His voice was somewhat different from what the brothers had expected, especially judging by his bored and slouchy appearance. It was a deep, strong voice, a voice one would expect to hear from the mouth of a warlord encouraging his men for the final battle, not a bored prince at the lunch table.

The doors opened again and a long row of servants came in, carrying dishes and plates. For a while the only sounds were the clatter of forks and knives, the thumps of jugs against the table and a lot of munching, but as the first hunger was satisfied, chatting arose over the table and the atmosphere turned lighter. Nabile used the chance to chat with Shad and Saura, asking them about events in Neopia and laughing at the funny news, even the smallest and most trivial ones. She had clearly missed that information and the brothers were truly glad to be able to help her.

Jazan, on the other hand, barely said a word during the whole lunch, leaning on the table, gnawing on the food and throwing bones to the Setis who were sunbathing in front of one huge window on the fluffy carpet, and mainly gazed into nothingness, yawning once in a while. Eventually Nabile stopped her conversation with Shad, turning serious and hissing at her husband: "Jazan, would you please try to behave? We're having visitors!"

"We always have visitors here," bit Jazan with his mouth full, then swallowed the piece and added, covering another yawn: "Always the same show every single day, breakfast, lunch and dinner, always those boring faces, always the same chitchat. How long am I supposed to look like I'm having the time of my life here? It'd be much nicer if all those fancypants..."

"Jazan," hissed the pink Ixi, her eyes flaming in fury and embarrassment, "not now! Please, just..." she sighed, rubbed her forehead and added: "Those people are your friends, and true servants of Qasala. They're here for the sake of this city, and for the sake of us, please try to appreciate at least that."

The Kyrii shrugged with a somewhat impatient grimace that said "fine, whatever, just leave me alone". Nabile's pink face turned reddish when she turned back to Shad and Saura, trying to pick the thread up again as if nothing had happened. Shad helped her out, diving back into the chat with his usual light blabbing, and Saura chimed in every once in a while. The Zafara glanced at Nightsteed for a second.

The Uni hadn't talked much during the lunch, but that was because he wasn't very talkative in general, and none of the advisors by the table seemed too comfortable with talking to him either. He had been sitting and eating, and he was currently gazing at Jazan as he munched on his qando stew. Nightsteed's eyes were full of deep, sad concern.


	4. Chapter 4

The lunch took around two hours – apparently nobody was in a hurry and they knew how to enjoy the meal. Finally Shad and Saura rose together with most others and thanked Nabile for her hospitality. The Ixi shrugged with a smile and said: "We'll meet again at dinner."

Saura turned to leave but Shad seemed hesitant. "Your Highness..." He wasn't even sure whether he addressed Nabile or Jazan, but as the Kyrii prince seemed just as bored and absent as before, he looked at Nabile. "Your palace is truly magnificent and full of wonders but I won't get to see much of it when I'm in my room all the time. Will you give me permission to look around a little?"

Saura blinked, hearing such a complicated speech from Shad's mouth. Jazan covered another yawn and winced as Nabile smacked his leg under the table. "Of course, feel free to look around," she said with a smile which froze for a second as she glared at her husband. "Just ask for a servant to show you around or you'll get lost in the hallways."

When the brothers stepped out, they found the same brown Xweetok waiting for them. She guided them back to their rooms, bowed again and was about to leave when Shad asked: "Say, could you show me around in the castle?"

The maid gazed at him in confusion. "I, well... I suppose I could, yes."

"Cool!" The Xweetok stepped back when Shad grinned widely, two rows of long white fangs shining in the sunlight as his tail thumped against the floor. "Saura, are you coming too?"

"Maybe another time." The Zafara threw himself on the bed with a moan. "I think I ate too much. Those guys have excellent cooks here, really..." The Xweetok could barely hold back a chuckle as she and Shad left the room and headed east, towards the center of the palace.

Shad turned out to be the most annoying tourist a guide could ever meet. Now that he had no clear goal, he jumped here and there, sniffed the statues, landed on windowsills to lean outside, tried to slide down the banisters and dove into big vases to see what was inside.

"Sir, please!" begged the Xweetok. "Be careful with that vase, it's over three hundred years old!"

The Lupe sneaked away from the vase. "Sorry." His face reflected regret for a second, then he attacked another statue. When it proved to be nothing interesting, he turned back to announce, "And I'm no sir. Call me Shad."

"Shad," repeated the Xweetok, then smiled. "My name is Meira."

"Pleasedtomeetcha." The shadow Lupe grinned, spotting another staircase and running up it to explore the next floor. Meira hurried behind him.

"Sir... I mean, Shad, we shouldn't really be here," she said. "This hallway is secluded; people rarely come here."

"Why, is it dangerous?" asked the Lupe, stopping at once. The Xweetok was surprised by the sudden change in Shad's behavior – he was fully ready to turn back if Meira should say yes.

"Not really," muttered the maid. "It's just... memories that shouldn't be brought up."

Shad took a few steps forward. This hallway had fewer windows than the others and thus it was dimmer there. He could see dark paintings hanging on the wall, but to see one better, he had to step closer. The picture turned out to be a portrait of a white Kougra with big slanted amber eyes and long dark blue hair. She was wearing a black dress which made her white fur look brighter than it actually was, despite the cracked paint and dull colors on the canvas.

"Queen Ara," muttered Meira, her voice quiet and frightened. "The most beautiful queen Qasala has ever seen..." She could say that without hesitation as Nabile was a princess, not a queen. "She was Jazan's mother."

Shad frowned. "Ara. Wasn't there a city called Ara in Lost Desert a long time ago?"

The maid gave him a surprised glance; she hadn't expected Shad to know. "Indeed, the queen was named after the city of Ara, as her ancestors were from there. Ara was destroyed a long time ago; it had been bigger and more prosperous than Sakhmet or Qasala but it fell in a single night and nobody really knows what happened. There are stories, yes..." she stopped, her eyes widening and now full of fear, "but those stories are contradictory and nobody knows the full truth. Can we please leave now?"

"You said that it's not dangerous here," said the Lupe, his eyes sinking into Ara's eyes on the canvas. The painting was old, nothing but a reproduction of the proud queen who had lived centuries ago, but her eyes had been painted with amazing vividness. They seemed alive.

"No, but it's downright creepy here," hissed Meira.

Shad grunted, turned around and startled when his eyes fell on the object right in front of him across the hallway. It had been hidden in a niche full of shadows but now it was partly visible in the dim light of a nearby window. The part that was lit by the sun shimmered in shades of gold, white and yellow, as the part in the shadows looked like dark brass. But it was clearly a golden statue, over fourteen feet high and very valuable. Shad stepped closer.

It was a Kyrii, extremely true to life, every single detail in place, a real masterpiece, though the shiny surface of the statue was a little cracked and dented at places. The face of the Kyrii was rough and mean. He looked a lot like Jazan and Shad would in fact have sworn that it was Jazan, but there was still a difference, a mean, vile glance forged into the statue's eyes.

"Who's that grumpy-looking guy?" asked Shad.

Meira winced at that description. "This is Jazan's father. King Razul."

The Lupe stared up at the statue's ferocious face. "_That's_ Razul? Wasn't he a flaming skeleton in a long black robe and all that junk?"

The maid winced again and lowered her voice as if the statue could hear them. "He wasn't always like that; he turned into the monster you've heard about after he sacrificed his own city in his vain attempts to become immortal." She stepped forward, gazing up at the statue. "He wasn't a good king. The city was prosperous, yes, but it was prosperous because he forced it to be, and the people served him because they were afraid of him. From what I've heard, Queen Ara was a sweet and loving young princess when she came here, but together with Razul she only had two chances – to live in fear and under the oppression of the sorcerer or become like him and rule Qasala with iron fists together." Meira looked at the painting on which Ara's strong features had remained timeless and young. "She chose the second way. They were horrible; their years of ruling were lined with fear and blood."

"What happened to Ara?" asked the Lupe.

"Nobody knows for sure, but they say that Razul killed her. She wasn't as evil as the king and when she learned about his plans about cursing the city, she tried to stop him." The Xweetok scowled. "The queen got off easy. Being dead isn't as bad as being cursed for centuries. This statue here," she looked up at golden Razul's grim face again, "stood in front of the palace back then. When Razul put his curse on the city, it didn't spread fast. We could feel it taking over us, turning us into creatures with no blood, no feelings, no pain, nothing. Naturally, we were angry. The crowd gathered in front of the palace, they attacked the statue, kicked it, threw stones at it, but only a few of them left a mark. When Qasala was resurrected and we returned to normal, Jazan had the statue removed and taken here, along with everything else that reminded of the old era."

Shad gazed at her. "So you mean... you were cursed as well, and many centuries old just like the others?"

Meira grinned. "Of course, just like the rest of the people. It didn't feel that long. When I try to think back on the years I spent cursed, it's like a hazy dream where you can't count the passing hours. Jazan and Nightsteed had a different fate as they're both mages; they knew how to withstand that haze and worked all this time to lift the curse – in which they eventually succeeded."

Shad's face was more serious than Meira had ever thought possible as he went farther in the hallway. There were more statues, all smaller, many paintings that most likely depicted Jazan's further ancestors and some drapes that had knit-in scenes from the old era. The Lupe could recognize the crowning of Razul, though the hanging was so old that the colors were now mostly shades of grey and blue.

"Say," asked Shad, knowing that the maid had followed him, "how come Jazan is still a prince and not the king, seeing that he now rules Qasala?"

"Well, it all comes down to formalities," said Meira. "After all, Sakhmet is ruled by princess Amira as well. And besides," she pointed at a marble pedestal on which lay a cushion with a heavy golden crown, "as you can imagine, the Royal Crown runs in the family."

Shad looked at the ornate crown, the rich jewelry and carvings, and thought of the thoughts that had once been formed under that crown. "I see. Jazan doesn't want to wear his father's crown."

Meira nodded. "Exactly. Could we please go now?"

Shad glanced at the very end of the hallway. It was a dead end. "Okay then, I saw a staircase going up next to the beginning of this hallway; come on!" He galloped off, Meira right behind him. Shad turned into another hallway, looked around curiously and trotted on.

"I smell fresh air," stated the Lupe, sniffing the air with a frown. "And look, there's daylight shining at the other end... shouldn't all these hallways be closed?"

The Xweetok's eyes widened. "Oh dear. I, well... we really shouldn't be here."

Shad sped up and turned around the corner – and froze right where he stood.

"Whoa," he gasped.

The hallway turned into a balcony just around the corner, forming a wide platform that was partly covered with the hallway's roof. It seemed to be one of the highest points in the palace, though the lower roofs covered most of the view on the city. More importantly, they also covered the city's view on the balcony, which was clearly crucial as most of the balcony was occupied by a huge green two-headed Scorchio.

"Scordrax," whispered Meira, standing behind the corner where the creature couldn't see him. "No sudden moves or he'll attack."

One of Scordrax's huge edgy heads rose higher as he observed Shad curiously. The other head spent a few moments munching in the food bowl that was the size of a garden pool, then it turned as well, so that the Scorchio got a panorama overview of the shadow Lupe under two angles.

"Suggestions?" muttered Shad under his breath.

"Watch before you run around corners?" the maid hissed pretty sarcastically, then added: "He's actually rather friendly but sometimes he doesn't feel his own strength, and when he gets playful or hungry or when the fire glands in his throat are disturbed by something, even a strong smell, it's better not to stand right in front of him."

The head that was above the ceiling gave a quiet, somewhat interested 'nraah' as it bowed down to sniff Shad. The other head turned back to the food bowl.

"He's a Neopet, just like you and me," noted Shad, standing quietly when the green head that was as big as Shad himself curiously poked his front paws. "Can't he talk and think?"

"No, he's not a Scorchio," said Meira. "He's a memory of Jazan's first childhood attempts of advanced sorcery. He was originally a petpet – don't ask me, what kind of petpet, I don't know. But the spell was Jazan's first fully successful spell to turn a creature into a functional creature of a totally different species, so he kept it and in time it grew into this thing."

Shad reached his paw out carefully to pat Scordrax's nose and the creature's eyes narrowed a little as he tilted his head to show where it itched. "Fully successful? He has two heads!"

"That was intentional."

Shad started, he recognized that voice. Meira bowed hastily as Prince Jazan came closer down the hallway.

"You got lucky; you came right after lunch when he's fed all the leftovers. Had he been hungry, he wouldn't have bothered with curiosity."

Shad carefully backed away from the Scorchio's nose that had puffed out a tuft of oven-hot steam. "Sorry, Your Highness, I didn't know that he was here. It won't happen again."

"Well, he likes company." Jazan absently patted the nose of the huge creature who had now turned to sniff him – the other head was still eating – and to Shad's and Meira's surprise sat down on the floor, leaning his back against the wall. "I don't know how he does that..." now his voice drifted away and he was talking more to himself than to the two Neopets, "sitting here day after day, eating and sleeping. Fine, you circle the city at night, don't you?" Scordrax gave another 'nraaagh' and poked Jazan with his muzzle. "But still... you and I share a dull life, a life that had a past but no future, don't you agree, Scordrax?" Something rumbled quietly at the back of the Scorchio's throat.

"Would you rather have a war with Sakhmet or something?" Shad asked a bit sharply, causing Meira to wince and back away. Jazan didn't seem to be bothered by the sarcasm.

"What for?" he asked. "Wars are nothing but pointless struggling for more wealth or land, and I have both, not that they're really giving me anything..." Scordrax purred softly – at least it could be considered purring by his standards – and rubbed his head against the prince's side. "Now get lost, both of you."

As Shad left behind Meira, he could hear the prince talking to the huge Scorchio: "You know, sometimes I'm jealous of those tourists. They see a lot, they never know what may be expecting them the next day... and I'm stuck here, in this dusty old city, not even needed any more as Qasala works well now without my helping hand. What have I become? Nothing but a figurehead. Just a name. Who rules this land? Prince Jazan. Nice, where's the nearest inn? And so it goes." His voice faded away as Shad went down the stairs.

"He's been like that for a while now," remarked Meira. "As if living in his own little world... sir!" She bowed again and even Shad sank lower to the ground, though not really because of respect when Nightsteed's blue figure suddenly towered in front of them.

"You saw him," he barked. "What did he say?"

Shad gave him a brief overview on Jazan's words. The Uni scowled and trotted off as the other two continued down the stairs. Meira showed the Lupe the way back to his room and they departed on the last staircase. "Will you be able to find your way to the dining hall yourself this evening or should I ask someone to guide you?" she asked. "I won't be able to come myself; I'll have to go to the city to help my mother arrange the booth for the Night Bazaar."

"We'll find the way," said Shad. "What's the Night Bazaar?"

Meira smiled. "Every Friday we hold a bazaar that lasts from sunset till sunrise. Impractical, I know, but it's a very old custom and comes with festivities to celebrate the end of the working week. Nights are livelier than days around here one way or another; the air is cooler and fresher then. You should come and see, in fact. It's a truly unique experience."

"Will do," Shad promised with a grin.

When the Lupe stepped into the room, he found Saura leaning on the windowsill, his head outside. "Hey bro, you should've come too. I found this cool hall- what?"

"Shh," the Zafara hissed again. "Gimme five minutes." Shad, knowing his brother well enough, sat down and waited. Saura had extremely good ears, and while he usually didn't spend time spying on others, he easily used this advantage when he found it necessary.

Minutes ticked by. The hot air was barely moving in the room and the bright sun stood still in the sky, though it was definitely farther than when Shad had left for his tour. He could hear the noise of the streets outside, and he knew that Saura could hear a lot more, whatever it was. Finally the spotted Zafara pulled himself back in with a scowl, shook his head and then told Shad what he had heard.

-

It turned out that Saura had had a rather clear shot on Scordrax's balcony so while sitting on the window and listening at the streets, he had overheard Shad's visit to Scordrax – "and that Xweetok girl was right, by the way, one day you'll get yourself killed like that" – and was currently listening to Nightsteed's conversation with Jazan when Shad came in. It had been a long conversation but the main point was clear enough...

"Jazan, the more I look at you, the clearer it becomes to me that you're not caring about Qasala any more," Nightsteed had stated. "Not that I can force you to, but it can have consequences more serious than you think. You're a mage, buddy." ("He actually said "buddy"?" demanded Shad, and Saura nodded.) "You're bound to this city, you and I fought long and hard for it, went through a task that shook the whole Neopia, and now you're simply sliding away from Qasala."

"It's doing fine without me," Jazan had claimed. "The shops are working, people are living their lives... who needs me here any more? More precisely, what would they need me to do?"

Nightsteed snorted. "They need you to _care_. Cities need that. They're like wagons; they can move on their own but they need to be lead or they'll end up off the road. The thing is, Jazan, I've been out and looking around for many nights now. There's a mage somewhere out there; I don't know who he is and whether he's local or someone from outside but he's a good mage and greedy above that, Jazan. He wants this city. There will always be people who are hungry for the throne but most of them are no match for you... and me," he added rather proudly. "A mage is in a different league. With Qasala drifting away from you, it needs a new soulbound ruler, someone to guide it with his heart, someone the people love and trust. There are spells for achieving that but those cannot be used while you're still strongly connected to Qasala as you used to be. You're not anymore, Jazan."

Jazan had, at least at Saura's understanding, scowled at that. "Nightsteed, that's all nice and lovely but there have always been and always will be mages in Qasala. I don't know what you may have heard but it'd take someone really crazy to try and take a city over that way. Mages have more straightforward ways for that and frankly, even if I believed what you're saying there, what would you suggest? I can't start caring about my city just like that, because you told me to. And I do care about Qasala; maybe not as much as before, so what?"

There had been more arguing than that but the point was already clear – Jazan, despite Nightsteed's continued attempts, had remained as absent and laid-back as before, refusing to listen to his friend. "Frankly, not that I blame him, it's a pretty strange theory," stated Saura, "but Nightsteed seems to be serious enough about it. The world of mages is strange to start with, if someone is really able to take a city over just by replacing the mental place of a ruler..."

"Fully possible," announced Shad. "Think about it. We've both read Faerie tales when we were puppies... at least I did." Saura was adopted and had come to the family only a few years ago, and hadn't changed much during that time. "Whenever there's a handsome hero somewhere out there, loved by the people and all, he eventually takes the throne, kills the evil tyrant who has repressed the people, becomes the king, happy end and all. When this mage is from a simple family, and he most likely is, it's a lot easier to win the people's support."

He stood up and started marching around in the room. "Spells can twist people's minds, you know that. Jazan has apparently been doing a pretty good job at helping that mage. The prince who barely shows up nowadays, is bored and doesn't seem to care much about Qasala, and note that he's the son of two former tyrants whom the people still remember. Yus, now all this mage guy needs are a few heroic deeds, or taking credit for someone else's heroic deeds, and some mind-twisting and poof, we have a revolt and townsfolk with pitchforks at the palace's doors."

Saura scowled. "And here we are in the middle of those things again. Perfect. Well, Jazan was right, he can't really be forced to care about this city. Sure, he could look all excited in front of the people and all that junk but if it's a battle on a magical level then his true feelings will work against him one way or another."

"Should we contact Tsuki?" asked Shad. "He's a mage; he'd be able to understand this better than we do and maybe help us out a little."

The Zafara scowled. "Normally I'd agree, but note that Nightsteed isn't trusting Artus, who's Tsuki's friend. If he's Tsuki's only friend in this region, which he most likely is, then Tsuki might contact him to learn more about the matters or maybe consult with him and then we're in trouble. Or, if Nightsteed's curse should decide to work at that, we'll kick the bucket."

They were quiet for a while. Finally Shad said: "Okay, this won't get us anywhere one way or another. Listen, Meira told me about this Night Bazaar that takes place tonight until sunrise. We should go. You'll have the chance to buy whatever you wanted to buy here when we first set off," he grimaced, thinking how long ago that time now seemed, "and maybe we'll learn something additional."

The sun was setting, painting the light walls of the houses orange. When Qasala had been lively in the daytime, it was completely crowded now. Small linen tents were put up by nearly every street and lanterns and torches were being hung above the streets to make them lighter than they usually were. For a weekly event it looked a lot like something that was awaited eagerly and celebrated with joy.

Saura was slowly walking down the street, completely in his own element, stopping every now and then to examine the goods on the counters, chat with the salespeople and argue about the quality and price. He didn't move on fast and Shad had already crossed the whole bazaar three times, but the Lupe didn't mind; the streets had so many people that it was far from getting boring in the near future.

"Hey, Meira!" he greeted, noticing the brown Xweetok. Meira smiled and nodded back. She didn't look much different in the soft light of the colorful lanterns; her slanted eyes were as calm, yet proud as they had been in the palace. People tend to look different, less reserved, when they're not working, but apparently Meira was like that twenty four hours a day. Saura stepped closer, greeting the Xweetok as well, and then turned to look at the cloth she was selling. "Wow, that's really high quality."

"My mother knits it in her spare time," said Meira. "She currently went off to chat with her friends, so I'm filling in for her." She smiled, not really with the manners of a saleswoman but simply as someone who knows the value of her offer. "Would you like to buy some?"

"I'm not exactly a designer, not sure if we need any of that at home," muttered the Zafara, bowing over the cloth to take a closer look. A loud voice interrupted him, sensitive as his ears were:

"Filling in for Mom for five minutes again, ey Meira?"

Meira laughed, for the first time that the brothers ever heard. "Well, you know her. I don't mind being here, really; what else would I do during the bazaar? Hang around like you two useless bobbleheads?"

Shad and Saura turned around in surprise, already having recognized the loud voice. It was Harfu, and the other bobblehead was, of course, Deki. The buddies stopped by the booth and Harfu sank a little on his long Ixi legs to be lower than the booth's linen roof lit by flickering blue light.

"Hanging around is a lot more fun," he stated. "Listen, I ran into the guys a short while back; they're planning to meet at the Silver Scamander at midnight, care to come too? It'll be fun."

Meira's eyes narrowed at once. "No, and you're not going either. I know how this goes. You'll sit there all night, drinking Tigersquash juice and playing Bilge Dice, and before you know it, the sugar gets to your head and you'll decide that putting a bunch of Scarabugs in General Naruk's bed is a wonderful idea. Seriously, I know that you'll always be my little brother, but you'll need to grow up one of these days. Besides, you can't afford to get in trouble with Nightsteed anymore; he's been on a short fuse these days to start with."

Harfu scowled. "Why do you always have to be such a spoilsport?"

"Because someone needs to be that," bit Meira. Shad and Saura exchanged glances. Meira and Harfu indeed had something in common, now that you looked at them side by side. But they still hadn't expected to find out that the tall friendly white Ixi and the proud-looking firm brown Xweetok could be brother and sister.

"Hey, you two," Deki the Scorchio suddenly turned to Shad and Saura, "don't you want to come? The more, the merrier."

Shad's yellow eyes lit up at once. Saura seemed hesitant: "When they're all your friends..."

"Friendship has to start somewhere," announced Harfu, a wide grin spreading over his face. "Come on, you'll like them."

The brothers promised to show up, so Harfu and Deki strolled off, leaving Meira glaring at their backs.

"Hopeless cases," she said, though with a smile in her voice. "Good guards, yes, but outside their working hours only interested in hanging around and killing time... inseparable friends, and only known each other for a month or so."

Saura turned to look at her. "Really? I would've thought that they're childhood friends."

"As good as that," said the brown Xweetok. "Deki is Sakhmetian, came here with his father, who's some important figure in the palace; not sure who exactly. I don't have the habit of eavesdropping... One way or another, shortly after arriving, he saved Harfu from a Cobrall who almost bit him. And so they became friends. The people like them, really; it's like a symbol of Qasala's and Sakhmet's friendship. Nightsteed put them in the same shift, because those shifts are long and it's better to have two good friends there, gives them someone to chat with."

Shad's ears moved back and forth. "Nightsteed cares about the general welfare of the Qasalans so much?"

Meira scowled when her voice lowered. "More than anyone else. Even more than the prince, if you ask me... but don't ever let him know that I said that; he's pretty sensitive about Jazan stepping back from the city's life like that."

The shadow Lupe nodded in agreement and looked around. Saura had already passed to the next booth, so he said goodbye to the Xweetok and pranced on to catch up with his brother. He was about to bump into Saura when he stopped, blinked, then turned his head to sniff the air. "Whoa, strange..."

Saura turned around to glance at him. "What?"

"Someone I know, someone familiar," muttered the dark Lupe, "but I can't remember who that smell belongs to. Weird..."

"Something important?" asked his brother, knowing that Shad's sixth sense was oftentimes reliable enough.

Shad hissed quietly. "I'm not sure. I doubt it. I would've chosen to remember it if it was important." He shook his head, as if trying to shake the unnerving feeling off, then shrugged. "Okay, let's keep going."

They crossed the bazaar. Saura bought a few things they had originally come looking for, added some souvenirs to the mix, and then asked the nearest salesman where the Silver Scamander was. The directions took them in front of a small house stuffed between two bigger houses, yet the silver Scamander hanging above the tavern's door – forged of real silver as it seemed, and three times as big as real Scamanders – seemed to attract more people than the other houses on the street combined. The door was wide open, and so were all the windows, casting soft light on the street outside. Together with that light lively chatting emerged from the door and windows, and the place was obviously crowded. Some of the pets even sat on the windowsill, blabbing with their friends inside. By the time the brothers got to the door, a dozen locals had come out and a dozen had entered.

"Wonder if the locals only use this night to visit a tavern?" asked Shad, pressing himself into the crowd. The Silver Scamander was build of white stone and currently lit by many torches, yet it wasn't hot in there despite the many visitors and the flaming torches as the back of the tavern had no wall; it opened to another street and had a few pillars supporting the ceiling there. Customers flowed in through that entrance as well and sat by the tables that stood outside on the street.

"Guess it's because they don't have to go to work tomorrow," muttered Saura. His long ears were tightly pressed against the sides of his head. "Can you find Harfu and Deki? This place has so much blabbing that I can't distinguish anything."

The Lupe sniffed the air. "Heh, right there." He plunged into the crowd with newfound energy, dropping occasional "s'cuse me"-s at people whose toes he stepped on. Saura followed him, trying to exercise a bit more courtesy, though it seemed that it was impossible not to step on anyone's toes in that place.

The company sitting by a small wooden table greeted them loudly. Apparently the two buddies had already told them who to expect, and so the gang arranged a few chairs from somewhere, shouted for the waiter to bring two additional mugs of Tigersquash juice, and plunged into happy chatting at once. From Mystery Island, eh? What's it like? What's that Tombola man like, we've heard about him? And Jhuidah? Ooh, and the Techo Master, is he really able to defeat twenty enemies within a minute?

Saura sat back, letting his happy-go-lucky brother take over the conversation, though he kept an ear on what the Lupe said, knowing well enough that Shad had the tendency to blurt out things that weren't for everyone's ears. The sun had completely set now and the sky was a soft dark blue shade, cloudless as usually, so the thick cover of stars was clearly visible. The street below was lit by a row of yellowish lanterns and figures of Neopets walked past, sometimes shouting greetings to their friends sitting in front of the tavern.

"...and so Dad said that I might as well become a dishwasher in the palace's kitchen if I cannot behave myself and make him proud as a guard," Deki's voice broke into the solitude of the Zafara's thoughts. The fire Scorchio was a lot more talkative than he had been in the palace. He had struck Saura as a mellow and somewhat modest guy but in the company of his friends he clearly loosened up. Now he continued to describe an event involving Scarabugs and the palace's baker, accompanied by the roaring laugher of his buddies and Shad.

"Hey, you're the one from Sakhmet, right?" asked Shad, just remembering about that. Deki nodded. "What was life like there?"

The Scorchio grinned. "Well, when we first came here, I thought it was boring as dirt here compared to Sakhmet. They have all the crazy tourists and funny guards and street urchin gangs... but hey, this place is awesome as well. Different, but really awesome."

"They say that you'll leave when your dad's working time here is up," remarked an Ogrin.

Deki shrugged. "Well, he considered that but he likes Qasala just as much as I do so-" Before he could finish, he was interrupted by a screech outside, followed by some nervous shouts and then a loud thump. The crowd in the tavern stirred restlessly, then people started moving towards the entrance in the back to get outside. Even though most of the wall was missing, it was still tricky to get outside so it took them a lot of struggling and several minutes to finally get to the street and see why the people were gathering around something on the ground.

The first sight was downright horrific, though they quickly realized that it wasn't as bad as it looked, seeing who they were dealing with. It was Nightsteed, lying on his side, legs stretched out and scruffy wings pointing towards the starry sky. His mouth and crimson eyes were wide open in shock and he was breathing heavily, the dark skin tensing and loosening into wrinkles again on his chest.

"Fell down from the roof," hasty whispers explained in the crowd as the gang pressed through. "Why didn't he fly?" "Strange..." "Someone else would've died for sure...!" "Well, he cannot die, can he?" "Guess that's what saved him..."

The ghastly Uni had had some time to recover in the meantime and kicked around with his legs in attempts to get up. Harfu and Deki hurried over to him. Their friends stood clear – they didn't know Nightsteed personally and most Qasalans, as much as they respected the Uni, preferred not to get near him, especially after his recent behavior.

"Careful, sir, no need to strain yourself," warned the Ixi, crouching down. "Are you okay?"

Nightsteed snarled. "I'm fine. Do I look like something can actually get worse with my condition?" It wasn't a bitter question, just a rhetorical statement. "Slipped on the roof. Quite a fall, yeah, but I'm not that easy to take down."

Deki crouched down too. "Well, you'll definitely be fine but no need to risk with anything. We'll take you to the palace."

The two buddies lifted him up – a thankless task, as Nightsteed was still overly reluctant and one of his big hooves landed straight in Deki's ribs but apparently he had still suffered a serious shock and the kick didn't have much strength. The crowd watched silently and a bit curiously as the Uni was carried away. "We'll be back in ten!" Harfu shouted to his friends.

The crowd started breaking apart, still chattering. "Slipped? Why would he hang around on rooftops anyway?"

"Eh, you know him, hangs around a lot lately..."

"Why didn't he fly? He's a Uni!"

"Did you see those wings? Would you fly with these wings?"

"Saura," the shadow Lupe poked his brother when they returned to the tavern, "that was the smell."

The Zafara stared down at him. "What?"

"You know, the smell I sensed earlier. The one I couldn't remember. It was Nightsteed's cursed form, I could only smell it for a second when he cursed us," he winced at the reminder, "so it didn't come back at once. Apparently he was hanging around above the bazaar from the beginning."

"No wonder, many people in one place, easy to keep an eye on, whatever he needs to do that for," said Saura with a thoughtful frown. "But I can't imagine someone like him falling down from a roof..."

The Lupe shrugged and frowned with concern.


	5. Chapter 5

Harfu and Deki returned in half an hour, the fire Scorchio rubbing his sore side with a grimace. The people in the tavern stopped their chatting and started bombarding the two friends with questions, so by the time they reached the table, they had repeated for at least a dozen times each, "He's fine. Never been better if you ask me. Just a shock. Yeah, he's fine, I already said that..."

"It was nice of you boys to help him," said a chubby Yurble with a smile as the buddies popped down with a sigh.

"Anyone would've done that," grinned Harfu. The tavern visitors' attention seemed to cease at once and everyone turned back to what they had been doing, coughing sheepishly.

"Respected, yet avoided?" asked Saura.

"Can't blame the people for knowing what's good for them," Deki said with a chuckle. "So, what did we miss?"

The company broke apart at early dawn, when the sky was getting a bit lighter towards east and the tavern showed the first sings of getting emptier. Shad and Saura strolled back through the streets that were still crowded, but not as loud and lively any more. The Lupe was yawning his fanged jaws off, scaring the passers-by to the other side of the road.

"How come you're not sleepy?" he demanded, blinking quickly to drive off the haze in his eyes.

"I sleep during the daytime, that's why," said the Zafara. "And I'm starting to think that- whoa! Ar-tooooos! Hey, remember us?"

Shad blinked in utter confusion when his usually so reserved brother jumped up and down a few times before trotting over to the Island Acara who had just come out a small house. The scholar stared at him, then smiled nervously. "Why, of course I remember. What a pleasant surprise. Returning to the palace, I'm assuming?"

"Oh yes." Saura gave him a friendly yawn, making Shad blink again. "Been up all night; those bazaars are really fun, but now we really need to hit the hay."

"As do we all," agreed the Acara. "People usually just sleep the day after the Bazaar and get up in the evening."

"So Qasala will be practically extinct today?" asked the Zafara. Artus nodded. "Well, no sense in staying up any longer then, eh Shad? Are you coming to the palace too?"

The Acara shook his head. "Not yet; I have some quick business to attend to. Have a good sleep."

"Okay, that was confusing," hissed Shad as they continued towards the town square and the palace. "And the fact that my brain is already hazy with sleeplessness is not helping. Plus that stupid house smelled of coffee. I want either sleep or some of that coffee, and then I want an explanation, and no arguing there!"

Now it was Saura's turn to blink in confusion. "It did... okay, you're right, you need sleep. Everything at its own time. There's the palace now, try not to fall over before we reach our rooms... Shad, darn it, don't do this to me, you're too heavy!"

The Lupe was practically sleepwalking when Saura pushed the door open, watched as his brother collapsed on the carpet, pondered on the doorway for a moment, then apparently came to a conclusion and hurried off with a determined frown. He ran down the dim hallway which had been pitch-black just a while ago but now had just enough light to see where he was going. The Zafara only stopped once to ask a servant for directions. The servant remained staring after him as he ran on.

Nightsteed was standing on the balcony when the knock echoed on his door. He blinked, turned around, then turned back to look at the sky. It was still dark. Only Jazan dared to come to him voluntarily when it was dark and he was in his cursed form. Servants were literally afraid of him, even in daylight, and Nabile... she was just cautious, not that she could be blamed, a former street urchin as she was. A smart girl, even if a bit airheaded...

"What?" he snapped, angry at himself for drifting away like that. The door slid open and Saura peered in.

He hadn't been sure what to expect from Nightsteed's rooms, which were located near the rooms of the royal couple, in the corner of the palace. The two walls in the corner consisted of pillars, opening straight to a wide balcony that had a clear overview on half of the city – most of it, seeing that there wasn't much of the city behind the palace. The room was clearly old, but well-kept and clean. It didn't have much furniture. Even the bed was a mattress on the floor.

"Good morning," said the Zafara, lingering on the doorway as Nightsteed stared at him. "Nice room. Very zen. I'd like to talk to you."

"Come on in," said the mage, scowling. Saura closed the door.

"Here's the deal," he said. "My brother and I landed in this whole show pretty much accidentally. We didn't want to, we still don't. It's none of our business and we just wish to leave this city as soon as we can. But we got our share of these intrigues here, and while I have no intentions of becoming the Royal Spy of Qasala, I like this town, I don't want any harm to Their Highnesses and therefore you might be interested in hearing what I've found out."

Nightsteed's red eyes had narrowed. "What's your price?"

"Remove your curse when we leave the city," grunted Saura.

The corners of the Uni's mouth twitched. "I was going to do that anyway. I'm no monster. Well, your offer is nice and has no hidden intentions as I see, otherwise you'd be dead by now... I'm listening."

Saura didn't have that much to say but when he finished, the Uni gazed at him thoughtfully. "Well, that's interesting. And it fills in some nice little blanks I've been thinking about. Nothing certain yet, true..." He tilted his head. "Once you're here, would you like to do me a favor?"

Saura had been half-crouching on the floor in his usual Zafara manner. Now he stood up in all his length as his eyes widened. "Oh no. No way. No thanks. Like I said, I don't want to start sneaking around for you. I'm keeping my tail out of this, and so does Shad, and I only told you what I found out because it's your business, not mine, but that's it. We're just tourists and we'd like to stay that way, thank you."

Nightsteed grinned. "Tourists with good ears, are you not? That's what I'm asking you to do. No sneaking. Trust me, I know a thing or two about sneaking. Sneakers hear nothing as they're too concentrated on hiding themselves and avoiding being suspected. I'm asking you to do what you just did. If you hear anything, let me know. But don't go sneaking specifically for new info. I forbid you to sneak. Got it? Good. Anything else?"

Saura scowled. "Actually, yes. There's something I'd like to ask you. I know that you have it. A city that lives in such a schedule has to have it."

The room fell very quiet after Saura had presented his wish. For a brief moment the situation hung on the edge. Then Nightsteed said, "Fine," and went to another room. He returned with a small cup. "Don't let anyone see it."

xxx

Shad was floating in the blissful nothingness of deep sleep when a scent pierced his sensitive nose, waking him up at once. He blinked, then focused on a cup in front of his nose. It was made of bones and filled with a strange liquid. If it was liquid. The cup looked like a ribcage and its contents showed right through the ribs.

"Drink it," said Saura, who was holding the cup.

"What in the..." The Lupe squinted into the cup. It smelled like Darigan's old socks. And also like coffee.

"Drink it."

Shad gulped the liquid down. He blinked. Then he fell down on the floor. Saura sat down and waited.

Ten minutes passed. Shad's yellow eyes flashed open all of a sudden, registered the dimness outside and he sat up, shooting a confused glance at his brother. "How long did I sleep?"

"Ten minutes, give or take."

The Lupe shook his edgy head, ears flapping from side to side. "Okay. Uhuh. Ten minutes. Saura, you owe me a big bunch of explanations."

The Zafara nodded, sitting down and crossing his legs. "I know. I wanted to wait until you were fully awake and ready to listen. First things first, this here," he showed the empty mug of bones, "was Coffee of the Dead. Insanely valuable. I've seen it in the Mystery Island Trading Post before, the prices start from 110,000 Neopoints. It's not coffee, per se, but rather anti-coffee. It allows one to sleep very fast. Within those ten minutes, you got the rest of ten hours. In a city that has a sleeping schedule as twisted as this, something like that is necessary for the rulers, advisors and so forth. Actually all of us could use something like that once in a while, which is why it costs so much."

Shad gazed at the mug. "I see. I probably don't want to know what it's made of. So what was with the circus in front of Artus? You acted like a hyperactive Weewoo. And you yawned, might I add. You never yawn."

"Good thing he doesn't know me as well as you do," grinned Saura. "I caught his attention at once so that we wouldn't catch him off guard and make him think that he's accidentally revealed something to us with his expressions or something. He looked nothing like the friendly, nervous little scholar we met in the library. He looked... mean, and satisfied, for lack of better adjectives. The yawn was to assure him that I'm planning to go to sleep, so that he'd feel free to sneak around in the city today when most others are asleep, which he's going to do, I can bet my petpet on that."

The Lupe stared at him. "Oh great. You've decided to go for the spy routine again."

"Nonononono." Saura bit his lip. "On the contrary. I'm planning to learn as much about all this as possible, while staying out of this, you see? This city is dangerous. Something is boiling under the surface. The more we know about it, the better we can protect ourselves from it. It's too easy to pull unsuspecting citizens in, like the strange mage is doing with Qasala. Besides," now he grinned, "this whole thing has begun to interest me. Remember the house Artus had been in? It smelled of coffee, you told me that. Why do you think it smelled of coffee?"

Shad looked at him with a frown, then his eyes widened. "Me and my stupid, slow, sleep-infested brain. The coffee was there to hide the smells of anyone in the house from any nose comparable to mine. Artus met someone there, possibly many someones, and they didn't need anyone off the street to recognize them. Someone famous, you think? Someone not associated with Artus?"

"That's how those things tend to work," nodded Saura. "Of course, they're all just theories. It's none of our business, remember? No need to plunge in face-first into these matters. Though..." He told Shad about his conversation with Nightsteed. It had mainly been about Artus and the house of coffee.

"And he's gone for the spy routine again," announced the Lupe.

"Nightsteed deserves to know. It's all his business, not ours. He's trying to save the city from falling into the mage's hands, why shouldn't I help him any way I can?" Saura stood up. "And now I'm starving. Let's go find something to eat. You'll be able to smell Artus far enough so that we won't run into him, right?"

"Yup," agreed the Lupe, feeling that his stomach was complaining loudly as well. "Let's go."

Artus would much rather have been at the palace at that time. He knew that the master wasn't going to harm him as long as he was still useful, and he was continuously useful. But that wasn't the point. The master was unnerving. Very unnerving. Artus knew a thing or two about evil geniuses, he was a Neopian after all. The tall figure he was facing in this small warehouse near one of Qasala's main streets was nothing like Sloth, or Lord Kass, or old King Razul himself. This one was patient. He didn't rely on armies or magic. He played with people's minds, and he was good at it.

"Well, talk," said the figure sitting on a sack of coffee beans. Artus couldn't see his face all that well in the dim light. Not that he needed to.

"Nightsteed worries me," said the Acara. "He's smart. Probably knows more that we're assuming he knows. He sneaked around on the bazaar last night, and I have no idea what he may have found out."

"He fell from the roof, as I heard," said the mage. His voice was icy.

"Yes, sir."

"Who did it?"

Artus gave a faint one-shoulder-shrug. "Probably _him_, sir." The word 'him' had a certain stress, suggesting that the boss should know very well who he was talking about. "It wasn't me, and he was there, and he's not very calculative if you'll excuse my directness, sir. He probably sensed his presence and felt alarmed."

"Most likely," snarled the master. "Well, nothing to change there. Actually it worked out in our advantage as I heard." Artus nodded in agreement, just in case; he wasn't sure what the boss meant. "How's the research coming along?"

The island Acara sighed. "I'm making progress, sir, but bear in mind that it's an old spellbook. It has a primitive mind of sorts, and they're tricky. I'm not even sure if the text I'm reading is the correct text or something it presents me as it likes. I'm getting there, but it will take time."

"I have time," said the other. "Take your time. Don't be hasty. Hurrying will get us nowhere. Anything else?"

"No, sir." Now Artus just wanted to get out as soon as possible. The master tended to have that effect on people in the long run.

"Go on then." The Island Acara hurried out after bowing quickly, leaving the tall figure sitting on the sack. He seemed thoughtful, as much as his face could be seen in the shadows – if there had been anyone to watch. But there wasn't, he knew that. He sat back and closed his eyes, letting his senses drift.

Qasala. That big, beautiful, old city. One of the first settlements in Neopia, with an extremely long history, and so many rich memories, and so many proud people. And what had it become? A cursed, forgotten city for centuries, then some weeks of general excitement, and look at it now. Not ever a tourist attraction. There were those two, who were they again, that shadow Lupe and spotted Zafara, the only tourists in town at the moment, was it not so?

And yet there was so much potential. Putting the city on the map would be so easy. All it would need would be a good leader, a strong one, not like that stupid lazy Kyrii. But now that problem was taking care of itself. He could feel Jazan's bond with the city getting weaker by the day. And when the time came, when Artus finished his work and Jazan's bond broke, he would be there. Qasala would get a new ruler. And then – no more "that other place in Lost Desert". Tourists. Riches. Political bonds. And him in front of all that. And after that – who knows? Time would tell.

He scowled, standing up. There was, of course, this unforeseen little problem. As Jazan's bond weakened, Nightsteed's was getting stronger. He was putting up a good fight. But, and this was important, he didn't have what Jazan had, and what the mage had. This would be crucial.

He left the building. The streets were empty as he walked down them but there still were a few sleepy sweepers and milkmen, doing their chores and waving at him happily as he went by. "Good morning, sir!"

"Good morning," he replied with a smile. Love of the people, dear Nightsteed? All _you_ have is respect.


	6. Chapter 6

The palace's kitchen was, as expected, filled with people despite the early hour. Palaces are like small cities; they never completely sleep. Even though the kitchen was unusually quiet when the two brothers came in. A chef hastily fetched a plate of leftovers for them at their request, keeping quiet all the time. By following the glances he kept shooting over his shoulder, the two realized why: Prince Jazan was sitting there by the wall on an old and shaky wooden stool, thoughtfully munching on a pie.

"Wouldya look at that," muttered Saura, taking a slice of qando bread.

Shad frowned and bit his lip, almost piercing it as he forgot how sharp his fangs were. "I wonder if..."

"I know that look. You got some crazy idea again," hissed his brother.

"Worth a try, I think." Shad swallowed three sausages in a row before barking: "Hey, Prince Jazan! Good morning!"

The whole kitchen echoed when everyone in it winced, Saura and Jazan included. The Kyrii looked up only to see the shadow Lupe prance closer, cracking a wide, toothy – okay, fangy grin. That sight usually made people instinctively look around for Defenders of Neopia.

"Good morning," said the prince. He didn't look sleepy. Granted, nobody was able to look sleepy two feet from Shad's fangs, but he hadn't seemed sleepy before either. Now he had also lost his usual absent behavior, though, staring at Shad with certain hypnotized surprise.

"Can't get any sleep?" the Lupe asked sympathetically, sitting down as his tail thumped against the floor.

"Yeah, well..." If Jazan had wanted to give another one of his recent gloomy speeches, he had apparently forgotten all of them at the moment. "I just woke up, actually. There hasn't been much to do lately, besides sleeping."

"And you came down here to help those people with cooking?" Shad asked, kicking the prince's stream of thoughts in a completely different direction. The kitchen froze. The cooks' eyes widened. Someone fainted in a far corner.

"Why would I want to do that?" asked Jazan, completely bewildered.

"Why not?" Shad's yellow eyes blinked innocently. "You said that you have nothing to do. Sitting around doesn't sound more interesting than cooking, y'know."

Saura came closer, wondering to himself how much Shad would be healthy for one dose. "He's got a point. There's plenty to do in a palace and yet you seem so bored. And cooking is fun, I can vouch for that."

Jazan stared at them both as the cooks stared at him, too scared and amazed to even breathe. Them, slowly but steadily like a sunrise, the prince's face developed a smile.

"Heh, why the heck not? Where do you people keep the bowls?"

By the time the rulers, advisors and ambassadors gathered around the long oaken table to have breakfast, the sun was high in the sky and it was already hot outside. The company was the same as on lunch and dinner the previous day; even though the majority of Qasala was asleep, the rulers had to stick to a normal schedule. The servants brought food, chatting arose after a while, everything was the same, except for one tiny little detail nobody even noticed at first, but then it started to stick out like tiny details in regular routine always do.

"Jazan," Nabile eventually said, stopping her conversation with the Faerie delegate.

The tiny detail vanished, leaving a clear hole in the atmosphere and everyone's attentions focused on the royal couple's end of the table. Jazan looked up, his orange eyes widening. "What?"

"You were... humming," said the princess.

Jazan scowled. "Nabile, I'm the ruler of the city of Qasala. I'm relatively sure that I'm allowed to hum whenever I wish."

The Ixi stared at him. "But-a-but... are you feeling okay?"

"Besides the fact that this stupid little tune has been haunting me all morning, yes." The Kyrii reached out to grab another Star Shortbread Cookie. "What are you all looking at?"

"What tune is it?" Nightsteed's voice asked from the middle of the table. The Uni seemed... amused. Or at least a bit relieved to see a change in Jazan's behavior – whether it was a good or bad thing still seemed uncertain for him.

Jazan turned to look at Shad.

"It's 'Too Cool for a Name'," stated the Lupe with a wide grin on his dark face. "Moehawk's. One of their best hits ever."

"Though they really need to hire a new person to come up with their song titles," remarked Saura with his mouth full. "Great, now it's haunting me too. Did you have to sing it all morning?" Shad's grin got bigger in response.

The vast door in the opposite wall had slid open during the discussion to let a row of servants peer in. Jazan thoughtfully munched away on the cookie, paying no further attention to anyone else. Yet there still was a change in his behavior, a somewhat lighter note in the way he moved and the way he looked.

Saura shot a glance at Nightsteed to see his reaction. For his surprise the Uni was grim again, bowing over his plate. Something flashed in his blue eyes.

He was looking at someone at the table, or at least had been looking. Someone had caught his attention. Now the someone had hidden behind a mask of faked feelings again, yet on the inside concern and confusion began to seethe. Was Jazan really going to snap out of it all before the time came?

Maybe those two tourists were becoming more of a bother than he had thought.

When breakfast was finished, the two brothers strolled back towards their rooms through the airy corridors which were now light and humid again. It was quieter than usually. The city was asleep, and so were most of the servants.

"I smell someone," Shad suddenly announced. "Hrm... it's Deki."

"Shouldn't he... shouldn't you be asleep?" asked Saura, addressing his question straight to the Scorchio who stepped out from behind the corner at that moment.

"Shouldn't you?" the guard asked back. "I already slept. Not much, but still. My position doesn't allow me to sleep longer." He covered a yawn. "Have you seen Harfu? The shift is due fifteen minutes."

Shad sniffed the air helpfully. "Downstairs, near the entrance, I think he's aware of the time already."

"Oh good, wouldn't wanna be late again, Nightsteed would skin us alive," muttered Deki. "Hey, I just remembered... mother wanted me to ask if you two would like to come for a visit tonight. She hasn't been out of Qasala for ages and she'd love to hear some news and see outsiders for a change."

"Sure thing," Shad promised and Saura nodded in agreement. The Scorchio smiled and hurried off.

Saura looked around. "Say, where was that forgotten hallway of memories? It sounds like an interesting place and I never got to see it. Plus, if nobody really goes there then it should be safe to take a look."

His brother nodded eagerly, glad to have something to do besides sitting and hiding in their rooms, and galloped up the stairs, following his memory that had already started to serve him in that colossal palace. The hallway was as quiet as before, warm and dusty, the air standing still above the rich luxurious carpet.

Saura looked around curiously, poked Razul's immense statue and stood in front of Ara's painting for quite a while.

"What I'd like to know," he finally said, "is what happened to Ara. The city, not the queen. Artus needed those books, one about Ara, the other about the land of Elversti, and by now we should both know pretty well that he's indeed somehow related to this whole story."

Shad nodded grimly. "I never read the book about Elversti and the land around it that thoroughly. Probably should have." His ears twitched. "Then again... we more or less know what it _might_ have been about, don't we?"

Saura looked at him, recalling their adventures before reaching the Lost Desert. They had stumbled upon the long lost land of powerful, ancient Faeries, been stuck in an almost-war between the Faeries and the Neopets of a fortress on that land, somehow managed to help sort things out and leave – but the book that had pushed them into that time warp and the lost land was still somewhere in the palace, and for a reason because Artus had requested to see it.

...time warp?

More like time wrap, come to think of it. The land of Elversti had been encased in its own time. Quite similarly to-

"Isn't that what happened to Qasala?" he said so suddenly that Shad winced. "Stuck in time?"

"Another dimension, as I recall," said the Lupe.

Saura shrugged impatiently. "Same thing. Time is just another dimension. Hundreds of years passed for them without leaving their mark. That Meira girl doesn't exactly look like an ancient mummy, right?"

"And she told me that she's centuries old," the Lupe agreed. "But the mage wouldn't step on the same rake, eh?"

Saura frowned. "You know... that might exactly be the reason. If I wanted to pull some master plan, I'd carefully study all similar previous attempts to learn _where they went wrong_. Then again, we don't know what the mage wants from that book, we don't know what's in it... what?"

"Artus," hissed Shad, pushing himself into the niche behind Razul's statue. "Coming down the stairs."

Saura didn't waste time on further questions, but plunged behind a marble pedestal under the window. They could see the island Acara hurry down the staircase and past the entrance to the hallway without casting a single look in. When the steps faded, the brothers sneaked out again.

"What was he doing up there?" asked Shad.

"There's no telling; one could reach half the palace from that staircase," said Saura. "Unless you wanna follow back his scent."

Shad scowled. "No sneaking, remember? And I don't really care either. No point in being too suspicious. Librarians have billions of things to do even apart from helping crazy mages and whatnot."

When they got back to their rooms, Nightsteed was sitting in the middle of the carpet.

"We weren't sneaking," Shad announced.

The corners of the Uni's mouth twitched a little. "Good for you. I talked to Jazan. You two were playing court jesters this morning as I understood."

"Did it work?" Shad asked curiously, his tail waving around.

Now Nightsteed really grinned. "Actually, yes. And you probably noticed that." He turned serious. "Which brings me to my point. I fear that whatever is being planned here is either going to change or happen sooner. So I'll warn you. Stay out of anything that might happen. Stay in these rooms. If anything explodes, you won't be able to help by a single bit. Mage business is above your heads. If nothing happens during the next few days, well, nice, but no need to be careless."

Shad's ears drooped. "So we messed up?"

The Uni's eyes seemed almost soft when he turned to look at him. "If anything, you messed up the mage's plans. He's been patient, but this might snap now, hence my warning."

"But we promised Deki to visit his family this evening," Saura remembered. "If we stay in this room, we'll have to go back on our word."

Nightsteed glanced at him. "Is that so?"

"Yeah, his mother wants to hear news from the outside," said Shad.

The Uni turned to give him a sharp look. "Yeah, I reckon she would. Too bad you'd have to go to the Sakhmetian cemetery to deliver her the latest news. Deki's mother has been dead for years."

The room fell quiet.

"He lied," muttered Shad.

"You think?" asked Nightsteed, raising a brow.

"Why did he lie?" asked Saura.

The Uni glanced at him. "Now that's a good question. He wants you to come out of the palace, that's for sure, and even if his intentions are completely innocent, I wouldn't advise you to go. Not today."

Saura seemed thoughtful. "What if... what if he's connected to this conspiracy as well?"

"Likely," Nightsteed admitted, apparently against his will. "But not certain. I've had my doubts, but then again, anyone would tell you that I've had a lot of doubts lately. One way or another, don't risk. It's none of your business. We don't need innocent tourists getting harmed."

The Zafara sat down. "Let's assume that Deki's connected to this. What are his intentions?"

"If I had a single clue, he wouldn't be working here," said Nightsteed grimly.

"Okay, but... why would he want to get us out of the palace?"

"To annihilate you for getting in their way," said the Uni. "Obviously."

"Then they'll be suspicious if we don't come," said Saura. Shad's ears drooped and Nightsteed's eyes flashed in surprise. "Listen, Nightsteed, if you came along, you'd be able to protect us."

"Voluntary bait?" The Uni grinned. The teeth of his normal form were surprisingly white. "I like it. What time are you planning to go?"

"Whoa, wait-wait," began Shad as Saura said, "I was thinking at seven or so."

"I'll be here." The Uni left the room.

"Saura!" Shad half-hissed, half-barked as soon as the door closed. "What in the name of all things good and shiny are you doing? You're throwing us both in a Cobrall pit!"

"We're already at the bottom of the pit, bro." The Zafara got up, stretched his back and went to the window. "Maybe Deki isn't connected at all. Maybe he was paid to call us out there, and thinks that it's a prank, or maybe it _is_ a prank, by that jolly gang we met last night; everything's possible. When Nightsteed's coming, I see no point in letting him down, and if it really is a trap, then it's better to get it over with now rather than worry about someone lurking into our rooms at night when that Uni ain't here to protect us."

Shad frowned. "I suppose. I have a bad feeling about this." He looked out at the azure cloudless sky. "Storm clouds are gathering."

Saura nodded, squinting at the bright sun. "Indeed."

--

The rest of the day passed quietly. The streets were empty, the palace was empty, and the hot sun burned the dusty streets as quietly and impartially as it always did. Shad and Saura lingered in their rooms, half bored, half nervous, and passed the time blabbing about trivial things. They went downstairs twice, for lunch and for dinner, and both meals passed without anything unusual. Nightsteed looked the same as always, and Jazan's behavior hadn't changed much compared to the morning – if anything, he was even falling back to the usual lethargy.

When the sky was getting orange and the sound of people chatting was already to be heard on the streets, Saura shoot a glance at the golden clock on a bedside table and said, "It's time."

Shad nodded.

They were both quiet when walking down the streets, looking for the address Deki had given them, passing happy chattering Neopets. Finally Shad broke the silence, stating, "You know, this might easily be nothing."

"I know," said Saura.

"This can easily be a prank."

"I know."

"Then why do I have such a bad feeling about this?" snarled the Lupe.

"Because Deki's lie is suspicious, there are a few coincidences in this story, and you're good at bad feelings," said his brother levelly.

"You're not helping," hissed Shad.

"Wasn't trying to."

They went on for another minute, then Shad stopped in the middle of the street.

"No," he said.

Saura stopped too and glanced at him over the shoulder, "What?"

"I'm not going," stated Shad, and now his voice wasn't nervous any more. It was calm, cold and calculative. That didn't happen often, but when it did, it was easier to make the River of Lost Desert flow backwards than change Shad's mind. "It's certain death. Don't argue with me on this. Deki will have to sit this one out, thank you very much."

The spotted Zafara stared at him with concern. "But we promised..."

"I don't care!" barked Shad. Even though the alley they were standing on was empty at the moment, Saura couldn't help but look around quickly and nervously. "I'm not going. And neither are you, as long as I'm still breathing."

Saura knew his brother well enough and was fully aware that you could crack rocks on Shad's stubbornness, but he was still hesitating. It was, after all, a double promise. To Deki and to Nightsteed.

Something was watching them intently. The situation was on the edge. Will they come or go? But even without knowing Shad that well, it was prepared. It concentrated.

_"Come here."_

Shad blinked. Saura's long ears twitched. What was that?

_"Come here. Come on. You promised."_

It was in their heads, something like a voice, but not exactly, being more like a thought. It called them, and hypnotized them, and Saura's eyes were getting hazy. He squinted at Shad – only to see that the Lupe had pressed his paws against the dusty ground, all spread out, with white claws scratching the soil. His fangs were bared, and his yellow eyes had narrowed into stripes.

"Fat chance!" he barked out loud, tossing a verbal glove to the universe in general.

_"Come here!"_ The voice, or whatever it was, now sounded confused. Saura could feel his legs tingling. He wanted to go. Only the surprise at Shad's resistance had distracted him and held him back.

Something landed next to them with a thump. It was Nightsteed, already in his cursed form despite the early hour. They hadn't seen, heard or smelled him all the way down from the palace, but here he was now, crimson eyes gleaming.

"Just in time," Shad hissed from between his fangs. "Help us!"

Nightsteed gazed at them both with concern. "Can't. It's in your heads. I'm helpless here." His voice was surprised. He hadn't expected them to put up any kind of fight.

Shad's face was now sweating. All his muscles were tensed, but he hadn't closed his eyes. He was staring at one point, seemingly blankly, but that wasn't so. When Saura, whose stubbornness had never been comparable to Shad's, suddenly turned around and started going on, the Lupe sprang forward at once. And grabbed Saura's leg between his teeth, pulling him face-first into the ground.

The call was gone – had to be, as Saura couldn't hear anything any more but the ring in his ears. He sat up, spitting dust. Shad's figure towered in front of him, his eyes a lot more serious than usually.

"Your body and your will belong to you and are only for you to command, little brother," he said darkly and then added, looking up: "And nobody will ever get in my head, y'hear?"

"Yeah, because they're afraid of what they might find there," muttered Saura, getting up. His leg was sore; Shad had strong fangs. Nightsteed was still there, having developed the kind of cold glance people use to hide their surprise.

"Nice," he said. "But note that you're not safe here either."

The voice-thought interrupted again, but this time it wasn't directed at them. _"Father, I'm too weak!"_

Something echoed through their brains, like a non-phonetic equivalent of an impatient sigh, then it smashed into them. They collapsed, all three of them. Darkness fell.

Recovery was a bit like waking from a very long sleep. Shad opened his eyes and tried to stretch himself, only to find that his legs were tied together with a narrow rope. A few feet away Saura found himself in the same situation. Nightsteed was behind Shad, or so his nose told him.

"Mrawhh," did the Lupe, seeing that his muzzle was tied too.

"Sorry for the inconvenience," said Deki, "but you have sharp fangs and those work wonders on ropes as you surely know."

He was sitting on a small stool, dressed in his usual palace guard armor. They were apparently in the courtyard of a small house somewhere in the outskirts of the city. The sky was still orange, the sun was still setting and the sounds of the streets were to be heard farther away.

"Nrawghh?" did Shad.

"He asked if you were the one who called us," said Saura. He glanced at his hands. The rope wasn't tied, but melted together, fibers had merged to form one endless circle without knots. "It was you, wasn't it?"

"Obviously," agreed the Scorchio. He didn't sound mean. Victorious, yes, but calm.

"But it was your daddy who knocked us out," continued the Zafara, supported by Shad's grumpy mumbling.

"I positively hate it when I have to do everything by myself," said a voice from a doorway. The brothers had to stretch their necks to see. They hadn't heard that voice before, but they had seen the face. Numerous times. At the palace's dining table.

Shad let out another, somewhat surprised "mmrawghh" as the skinny yellow Wocky stepped into the fading sunlight. He was wearing a simple light blue robe and his face looked rather friendly at the moment, but his eyes were very sinister.

"That's right, young Lupe," he said, nodding at Shad. "It's me."

"Eh," did Saura, his voice hinting amusement, "I think what he just said there more or less meant 'hey, you're the whatsisname'."

The Wocky's cold expression cracked. "What?"

"He doesn't have a head for names," explained Saura as Shad hummed in agreement.

"Drefu Arafan. Qasalan external affairs. Sakhmetian, like his son." Nightsteed's voice was dry. He lay there, now a regular blue Uni again, legs tied together and eyes flaring. "Came here a few months ago and started knitting his webs of conspiracy. Did a pretty good job at developing our diplomatic relations with the Haunted Woods among other things, might I add."

The Wocky grinned. "I'm thorough. Minor setbacks don't mean that much in the long run. My current presence is one of those setbacks," he shot a stern glance at Deki, who looked down in embarrassment, "but it doesn't really matter. I'm not that important in this phase. Oh, I think it's starting now."

The sounds on the streets had changed. They were terrified. Shouts and screeching were to be heard, along with some dull distant roars. Saura hadn't heard them before, so he was at loss. Nightsteed didn't seem much smarter, though his face reflected disbelief and concern, hinting some suspicions. Shad, whose nose spoke clearer than words, rolled around and whimpered loudly, unable to talk. Drefu the mage grinned at him.

"Don't worry, you'll learn what it's about soon enough. Deki, your act."

"I'm on it, Dad." The Scorchio had stood up and taken a sturdy longsword that had been leaned against the foot of a small table. Now he sheathed it and flew off.

The Wocky squinted at the sky until his son was gone, then looked down. "Well, it's time for me to go as well. It'll be somewhat... uncomfortable for you here, but I can assure you that right now it's safer here than in the inner city." He smirked and turned around.

"And later?" asked Saura.

"I'm not sure, frankly." Drefu didn't even turn around. "I'll probably give you to the mob after the coup d'état has taken place. They can decide what to do with... traitors."

He left, and the courtyard fell silent, except for the distant shouts and roars and Shad's impatient, hopeless whimpering. Finally Saura asked: "Nightsteed, does your magic work on those ropes?"

The Uni shot a glare at him. "Take a wild guess. When the night falls, I gain my cursed form and may be able to struggle out of the ropes, but it wouldn't help you one way or another. Those are filled with magic and I can't break the spell."

Shad whined, struggling around and trying to rip the rope off his face. It was tied as a bridle, going over his muzzle and behind his head, but it would've been possible to pull it off – if the Lupe had been flexible enough. He stopped struggling and glared at Saura, yellow eyes full of mute orders as well as quite a few words that were probably better left unsaid.

The Zafara frowned, gazing at him. "But if I manage to get that rope off your face, you might be able to gnaw through all of them and set us free, right?" Shad rolled his eyes.

"You think they can be gnawed through?" asked Nightsteed.

"Otherwise they wouldn't have bothered tying his muzzle." Saura shifted over only to discover that he couldn't move freely. Another rope tied him to the leg of the table.

"They're not stupid, you know," remarked Nightsteed, as Shad moaned.

The Zafara snorted. "One of us has to be able to reach his muzzle. This courtyard isn't even that big. Shad, can you move over here? I think I'll be able to... let's see..."

Nightsteed watched with slight amusement as the two brothers rolled around in yellow dust, struggling with the ropes. Saura was right. After some failed attempts, he could get his long tail behind Shad's bridle and pull it off. The Lupe sneezed loudly, then attacked the ropes.

"Scordrax," he barked impatiently with his mouth full. "He's attacking the city. I think the mage sent Deki to fight with him. You know, young guard slays the monster, becomes a hero, the people support him, the owner of the beast gets the blame and poof, we get the whatchamacallit."

"Coup d'état," said Nightsteed, struggling to his feet as the ropes were gnawed through. "But... Scordrax only obeys Jazan."

"The nicer it all will look," grumbled Shad.

"Artus," hissed Saura, getting up as well. "He did something. No idea what, and no idea how, but he was there this morning and probably messed around with Scordrax, I can bet my best wooden spoon on that."

"Sounds attractive," grinned Shad. "Nightsteed, can you go find Jazan and tell him to get Scordrax under control? The people's support relies solely on that."

The Uni nodded grimly and dashed into the air. As he rose above the roof and into the falling darkness of the night, he changed momentarily, yellowish bandages flapped around his body, he stumbled in the air for a moment before getting his balance on the decomposing wings, then he whizzed off, faster than one would expect from a creature like that.

"And what about us?" asked Saura, shaking the last ropes off.

The Lupe's ears twitched. "Well, wouldn't wanna miss the show. Let's go and see if we can get front row seats."

-

Evening fell on the city of Qasala, filling the streets and courtyards with shadows – except in the inner city, around the main square and the palace, where several of the houses had been set on fire. Scordrax the gigantic Scorchio fluttered above the city, roaring loudly and occasionally spitting fire from both mouths. People were panicking and confused. Scordrax had never done anything like that. What was wrong?

"Look!" shouted a voice as Shad and Saura ran closer to the palace. "Who's that?"

A tiny figure floated closer to the rampaging beast. The light of the setting sun flashed on the sword, no bigger than a toothpick from that distance.

"Deki," muttered Shad. Some Neopets nearby caught the name and it rolled off through the crowd. "Deki?" "Deki!"

The people began to cheer. Saura sank lower to the ground as he ran, his ears drooping because of the deafening shouts. "This does not look good," he muttered. "Shad, look at Scordrax. Does he look... strange to you?"

Shad tilted his head, peering up as he ran. "I see what you mean. He's not destroying systematically. He's just rampaging. As if in pain or something."

Scordrax rolled up in the air at that moment, shooting a beam of fire at the library next to the palace. It didn't catch fire as it was made of stone and built heavily, but the roof stones melted. A deafening roar followed, and then another as Deki attacked.

"He'll get himself killed like that!" shouted a female Elephante, staring at the sky. Deki's sword flashed as he whacked Scordrax's neck, followed by an ugly screech. The beast's scales were too strong to be cut through. The gigantic Scorchio stopped in the air, focusing the glare of his left head on Deki. Then he opened the mouth.

"Nah," muttered Shad. "Won't work." The sky went red as Scordrax aimed another beam straight at Deki. When it faded, the guard was still there, even though half of his armor had melted off.

"Fire Scorchio," said a nearby Ruki. "Fire doesn't harm him."

As Deki attacked again, the loud cheer of the crowd supported him. Scordrax's skin was tough, but he didn't seem to have much concentration. He was rolling in the air pretty much aimlessly, roaring and shooting out fire every once in a while.

"You know what?" hissed Shad, crouching near the ground, ready to dive into safety as soon as the monster should fire at his direction. "I think Artus poisoned him. Or at least gave him something that made his mind hazy and confused him or something, one way or another, this isn't a spell. It's just mindless struggling."

Saura nodded. "Nightsteed should be in the palace already. If Jazan has even one single brain cell left, he'll stop Scordrax before people start blaming him and things get ugly."

"Did you hear?" Two young Neopets, a Xweetok and a Kyrii were eagerly chatting some feet away from them. "Jazan sent him!"

"What?" The news spread at once. "Jazan?"

"Well, he's the only one who controls Scordrax, right?"

"But why?"

"Hah, you know his bloodline, no better than his parents, remember old Razul?"

"Hasn't been really interested in our welfare lately, you've noticed, haven't you?"

Shad's ears perked. "Not good," he snarled. "Totally not good." His eyes narrowed. "Saura, look."

The Zafara looked. Drefu Arafan was standing farther in the crowd, grim and proud, seemingly calm but with flaring eyes. He muttered something to the Peophin next to him, who started talking to her friends at once.

"Rumor spreading," hissed Saura. "Smart, gotta hand it to him. Where's that stupid prince?"

"Scordrax!"

The strong, deep voice echoed over the crowd, followed by instant silence. Everyone shut up, turning to look at the staircase of the palace. Even though the voice had been loud and clear, the tiny figure of prince Jazan in his white robe was barely to be seen. The two-headed Scorchio stopped in mid-air, ignoring Deki's sword slashes which didn't seem to disturb him much.

"Had Nightsteed not warned him, he probably wouldn't even have known that something is wrong out here," whispered Saura to Shad. "Nice work, bro." The Lupe grinned in reply.

The air trembled when Scordrax replied with a deep moaning roar. Then the temporary attention faded again and the beast curled up in another burst of, as Shad and Saura assumed, pain in the stomach.

"Traitor," a whisper started somewhere in the crowd. When Shad stretched his neck, he could see Drefu mutter something. Others followed his lead and as it often happens in a crowd, the word spread like wildfire. "Traitor!"

"Shut up, all of you!" This was another voice, equally strong and loud. Nightsteed, complete with his flaming hooves and rotting bandages, was standing next to his friend. Against all odds, the crowd fell silent. The question of Jazan was a question, but Nightsteed was respected. Not loved, true, but respected. And feared.

Saura turned to glance at Drefu. He was edging away in the crowd, something flaring in his eyes. Things were not going as planned. Not at all.

"Scordrax!" called Jazan again. It was an order. Even a twenty-ton two-headed Scorchio in stomach pains is unable to withstand such an order. He turned slowly in the air, turning both heads to look at Jazan. Another deep moan escaped his both throats.

Shad dashed off through the crowd. Saura blinked, turning to stare at his distancing back, then he ran off as well, following his brother. The whole crowd watched silently, backing off as Scordrax descended, making room for his landing. Nobody paid attention to the two brothers as they ran towards the palace and up the stairs.

"Jazan," barked Shad, panting as he stopped on the last steps. The prince turned to look at him. He didn't look bored and absent any more. Now he just looked grim, comparable to Nightsteed's recent behavior.

"Jazan, I'm pretty sure that whatever Scordrax has, it'll kill him any minute now," said the Lupe. "Deki is unable to beat a beast like him, so in order to make him look like a hero, he has to use other ways to, y'know, slay the monster."

The prince's orange eyes narrowed. "You have a point." He turned to look at the vast Scorchio who was now humbly sitting in front of the palace. Big as he was, his heads reached up to half of the staircase and the quiet rumbling moan in both of his throats made their ears vibrate. The crowd was silent, waiting for the result.

"Let me just..." Jazan muttered thoughtfully, gazing at his gigantic pet that was now completely tame.

"The Death of Toxic spell, maybe?" asked Nightsteed.

"Nightsteed, he has a crowd right behind him; we can't do that to them," snorted the Kyrii. "No, I think... yes, that should work." His eyes narrowed, and turned crimson. His robe turned black and started flapping around his feet as he stood there, energy gathering around him and running up the robe as narrow bright blue lines. The prince of Qasala squinted, frowned and without a word slashed his hand through the air.

Scordrax blinked. His eyes widened. He fidgeted uneasily on his feet, then raised both his heads and sent a massive burst of fire at the sky from both throats. Some ten feet from the wide mouths, the beams merged and turned bright green. For a moment the whole main square was lit by ghastly green light, turning everyone's faces into something from a twisted nightmare. Then the Scorchio closed his two mouths and the square fell silent – and dark, not counting the few burning houses nearby. Nightsteed nodded at those absently and the fire faded.

"What would Death of Toxic have done?" asked Shad.

"Washed the toxins out the... normal way," Nightsteed replied quietly.

The Lupe's ears twitched. "Oh. Yuck."

Jazan raised his head to gaze at the crowd behind Scordrax – and the small guard who was still fluttering in the air.

"Deki!" he called. "Come here."

His voice rolled through the crowd, which trembled for a second, resisting the call – Jazan's voice used the same stern tone Deki had used when calling the two brothers on the alleyway. Deki still floated in the air. He was fighting back, a small-scale mage as he was.

"Come here!" the prince boomed. Deki was only a rookie, a young mage taught by his father. Jazan was one of the strongest magicians in Neopia. The Scorchio flew closer, or rather struggled closer, fully against his will.

"Deki," muttered a voice behind them. Shad and Saura turned around, blinking. They had forgotten that the palace always had guards. At the moment there weren't two, but only Harfu, slanted eyes full of shock.

"Don't worry, kid." Nightsteed looked back at him over his wrinkly shoulder. "He fooled us all, not just you."

The Scorchio landed reluctantly in front of Jazan, avoiding Harfu's look. He looked aside for a moment, not sure what to do or say, then frowned, gulped and apparently came to a decision, raising his head and looking straight into Jazan's dark red, glowing eyes. The square fell so silent that you could hear a needle drop, though in that situation the needle probably wouldn't have dared to drop loudly.

"Let me get this straight." Jazan's voice was now normal, but nevertheless everyone could hear him. "You were planning to seemingly defeat the rampaging Scordrax, claim my throne with the support of the people and become the new ruler of Qasala with your father as the real mastermind and advisor behind your back."

Deki's face was impenetrable. "Yes."

Jazan raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

The Scorchio's expression didn't change. "Yes, Your Highness."

The prince nodded vaguely. "And I would've been killed."

"Eventually, yes. Your Highness."

"And Nabile?"

Apparently Deki hadn't involved the Ixi princess in the plans. He seemed hesitant for a second. "Undecided. Probably killed too."

"Nightsteed?"

Deki shrugged slightly. "Well, we had to improvise. Father is stronger than him so it made no big difference. We could've disposed of him any time we wanted. He showed up conveniently when we took care of the two tourists, so we used the chance."

"Though you failed to take care of us," remarked Shad, his tail waving around on the cold stones. "I mean, I'm not exactly an expert here but tying your enemies up with ropes and leaving them all unguarded in a courtyard somewhere in an abandoned house isn't exactly the best way of doing it, or so I've heard."

Deki shot a glare at him and fell silent again. Jazan raised his head. "Where's Drefu?"

The question wasn't directed to anyone in particular, so the Neopets in the crowd started looking around nervously and Nightsteed lowered his head, closing his eyes.

"I can't find him," he said after a second. "He's blocked his senses."

"Ask him about plan B," suggested Saura, crouching down on the landing the way Zafaras usually do. The prince and his friend glanced at him, "Plan B?"

"There's always a plan B, especially with something so important," said Shad. Jazan turned to look at Deki again. The Scorchio's expression was still icy, but now something was shining through. Something sinister. A very vague grin.

"Well, talk," said Jazan.

"I'll rather die than betray my father," stated Deki.

"Suits me," snorted Nightsteed, lowering his yellowish horn.

"Whoa, wait!" Jazan's eyes, though glowy red, somehow managed to look frightened. "We can't do that! He has important information."

"Which he's not willing to share, so no need to have him around," started the Uni. Deki shot a nervous glance at him. Nightsteed didn't exactly look like the winner of the Beauty Contest to start with, especially on closeup, but when he got cranky, he could get very unnerving.

"I'm sure we'll manage to convince him somehow," said the prince.

The Uni shook his head so that his dark mane and the bandages flew all around his neck. "Waste of time. And he'll probably end up lying anyway. Let me just..."

"Wait, wait!" Deki's eyes had widened. "I can tell you. It makes no difference." He stepped back quickly, his eyes stuck on Nightsteed's horn. "Father has created a new spell based on the information from the two spellbooks the tourists brought. Should his original plan fail, he's going to use that spell to bring Qasala under his rule and create an undead army so strong that even Fyora's power would be unable to defeat it."

Jazan blinked. "Undead army? I had hoped that Qasala has seen the last of those."

"You know how it goes, usurpers can never resist good undead armies," grunted Nightsteed somewhat sarcastically.

"Well, they're not good, that's the problem. They tend to be brainless moaning machines who kill people when you least need it. Trust me, I've done my research." The prince rubbed his forehead. "Okay, let's go find him then. Deki?"

"The catacombs under the palace," muttered the Scorchio, taking another step back.

"Lovely." Jazan looked at Harfu, narrowing his eyes, trying to remember the name. "Eh... Harfu, right? Guard him until we get back. We have a city to save."

"Bad idea, " said the ghastly Uni. "Harfu is his friend. Was." One look in the Ixi guard's shocked eyes confirmed that.

Jazan raised a brow. "Really? Didn't know that. I've really been neglecting my duties." He looked at the crowd in front of the palace. "Volunteers?"

The sea of grim faces spoke for itself. The tables had turned.

"Mage test, kid," Jazan said lightly, turning around. "If you manage to stay unharmed here, you got potential. Just don't kill anyone. Mobs are not to be underestimated." He walked into the palace, calmly and with determination, and Nightsteed followed him. Shad and Saura looked after them, then at Deki, then at Harfu, then at the approaching people.

"Well, I'm not gonna miss that," stated Shad, diving into the cool dark depths of the hallway.

Saura blinked. "What? Hey... wait! Where are you going?"

"After them." The Lupe's dark fur had already blended into the shadows. "I don't think anything interesting will happen here and it'd be fun to see a battle of the mages, don't you think?"

"Fun...?" Saura ran out of words. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, managed to produce a 'ghack', then waved his hands around, then whimpered hopelessly and hurried after Shad.


	7. Chapter 7

They caught up with the two mages in front of a staircase where both had stopped to stare at the approaching brothers.

"Yes?" asked Nightsteed.

"We'll just come and watch, thank you, won't get in your way or anything," said Shad, his yellow eyes gleaming happily in the dimness as Saura rolled his eyes.

Nightsteed, just like Saura a few minutes ago, ran out of words. "Watch... it's not a circus!"

"I hope so," agreed Shad. "Circuses are lame."

"Sir... your Highness, if you don't mind." Another figure was approaching in the darkness, white fur shimmering. It was Harfu. "I'd be honored to join and protect you."

Nightsteed moaned. "Why don't you all go and call the whole of Qasala while we're at it...?" Jazan just smiled. Or grinned, it was hard to make the difference.

"Come on then," he said, and started going up the stairs. The Uni huffed, shrugged – meaning that his shoulder bones stretched the skin for a moment – and turned to glare at the three. The fact that his eyes were crimson and also lit by his flaming hooves made his face downright gruesome.

"Listen up, all of you," he said. "Stay behind and watch, got it? No heroic deeds. Heroic deeds tend to be stupid most of the time and I don't want anything stupid there, savvy?"

"Yessir," barked Shad, his tail brushing the carpet. Saura and Harfu nodded. Nightsteed turned around with a scowl, and so they went, Jazan in front of others.

"Sir?" Shad asked after a while. The palace was pitch-black for some reason yet Jazan seemed to know where he was going. True, he had grown up in that palace. "Do you keep your catacombs on the second floor?"

"Good idea, in fact, they'd have a lot less mould and moss that way," remarked the prince, "but no. If Drefu is anywhere in this palace, which he probably is, then he has to be with the spellbooks, which are most likely," he stopped in front of a door, "here."

Shad squinted at the familiar Kougras with scrolls. "Makes sense to me."

Jazan pushed the library door open. The light was blinding at first, though it only came from half a dozen thick candles that were standing on the tables and various piles of books on the floor. The skinny Wocky was bowing over a book on the table. When the door opened, he startled and looked up. The look on his face switched from surprise to fear, to rage, to cold grimness.

"So Deki betrayed me," he said.

"Did not," replied Jazan, his eyes narrowing. His voice had a new tone in it – colder and viler, closer to the cursed prince of the cursed ruins. "I'm not that stupid yet, I can figure out obvious connotations."

"Good for you." Drefu straightened his back. "So it looks like you're not going to give your city away without a fight after all?"

"Did you ever expect for a second that I would do that?" Jazan asked back. Even though the library was quiet and calm, his black robe waved quietly around his legs. Energy was gathering, ready to be released. The others could see that Drefu's light blue robe was waving as well. Nightsteed pushed the two brothers and Harfu aside, towards a dark aisle between two shelves, and followed them himself as well. "It's between them," he hissed. "Stay out of this."

The two sorcerers eyed each other. The air was sizzling. The flames of the candles tilted away from the two, as if fearing them.

"You don't deserve that city," said Drefu. "You don't care about it. You just think you do."

"Then I wouldn't be here right now," snarled Jazan.

The Wocky sneered. "Oh, that's just pride. You don't want to give away what's yours. That doesn't mean that you care. You haven't cared for months."

"You know nothing about this." Jazan's eyes were flashing.

"I know that you're wasting this city's potential. Qasala could be big, Jazan. It could be powerful, and well-known, and on the map instead of just being 'that other place in Lost Desert'. Right now? Two tourists." Drefu nodded at the dark aisle where Shad's golden eyes were gleaming near the floor.

"You're just power-hungry," bit the Kyrii. "Qasala may be slow and forgotten right now, but at least I'm not draining its life out, driving the people insane with taxes and demands... do you think I don't know your intentions?"

"People are unimportant," snorted the Wocky.

"People are _everything_!" Jazan suddenly boomed and his robe flashed between black and white for a moment as the energy of his rage found a way out. "There is no city without its people, you fool!"

"True that," muttered Shad in their not-so-safe hideout. It was now lighter there when the energy concentrating around Jazan became visible. Drefu replied with the same.

"Would you look at that," Saura suddenly mumbled in surprise. In the bright light of the two mages' energies, someone slid towards the door from the other side of the room. Jazan had noticed him but apparently didn't want to split his focus – this was a crucial battle, even though it hadn't even come to a battle yet.

"Artus!" roared Nightsteed, rearing up and almost knocking Saura out with his bony wing. "You stay right where you are, you maggot!"

The island Acara shot a quick frightened glance at him, then slid out of the door and off he went.

"Very convincing," snorted Shad, earning the Uni's glare as Harfu pulled his sword out: "I'll go after him, sir! I can take him."

"No. Stay there." Nightsteed nodded at Jazan. "You won't be able to get past that magical shield around him. You'll be a petpet when you get out of the door. Most likely a pile of soot. We'll get him later, he can't escape far."

"And he was able to get out because...?" snarled the Ixi.

"He's a small-scale mage."

"Can't you go after him?" asked Shad, earning another glare.

"Sure I could, but I have to babysit you three. Things are about to get ugly and I'm the only one who can shield you." The Uni squinted at the bright light. "Now be quiet."

Drefu hadn't even noticed the scene, or at least ignored it. He had opened another book on the table.

"Are you familiar with the city of Ara, Jazan?" he asked with a grin. "Do you know what happened to it?"

"You tell me," growled the prince.

"Your mother was from there," the Wocky patted the book, "one of the very few descendants of the very few survivors. Ara fell because of a failed attempt to take it over. A sorcerer created a spell that would erase the history and memories of the city so that the people would remember him as the leader of the city. The spell went wrong. Ara was destroyed. The Darkest Faerie later used the same spell, after improving it, with the city of Altador; surely you've heard at least of that." Jazan's eyes narrowed in reply. "Good, you're not that hopeless.

"And this book," he patted the other tome on the table, "contains info on the land of Elversti among other things. Never heard of that either, I presume? Pity."

Shad's and Saura's ears perked up. This was interesting.

"Elversti," said Drefu, "is, or was, the ancient land of Faeries, wrapped in its own endless time for the rest of eternity. That story originates from Brightvale. Smart people, granted, but so very naïve. No serious thoughts about what they're doing. The very first settlers of Brightvale lived in some old fortress near the forest, and liked to meddle with magic, and as often happens when you meddle with things you don't know, it blew up in their faces. Time snapped, and split, and rolled up. Part of it rolled back, wrapping their past up together with Elversti, and part of it rolled forward, being partly responsible for the big archives of Brightvale. Old tomes simply aren't as old. They haven't had the time to get lost and fall apart, you see?"

"Cute," said Jazan, his voice still grim and icy. "And how's that relevant?"

"By using the knowledge from those two books, plus numerous other sources, I could create the spells I'm planning to use," stated the Wocky, smirking. "Have you any idea how useful it is to know how to mess with people's minds? Very useful, Jazan. Very, very useful. And splitting time – things that were and things that never were. Do you see the potential in it?"

"I see the potential of tying my city into a knot and turning it inside out," growled the Kyrii, now literally bubbling with rage. Nightsteed took another few steps back, head lowered, ready to take whatever may come. "You say that I don't care, but how do you care? You only care about yourself, Drefu." Bright blue shields of energy were forming around his clenched fists.

"Put those away," the Wocky said absently as if talking about vases, a lot calmer than Jazan though he seemingly radiated just as much magic as the prince. It just took less effort for him. "I'm stronger than you, Jazan. You're able to tell that. You've been nicely stuck here in your dusty city, while I've been training. I'm stronger than you and the undead Whinny there together," he nodded at Nightsteed.

"Nightsteed?" whispered Shad.

"He's right," the Uni replied grimly, his eyes still focused on the scene.

"So what are we doing here?" hissed the Lupe.

"I didn't ask you to come," grunted Nightsteed, then added, "The world of magic is unpredictable and has many factors. Strength doesn't determine everything. And Jazan isn't a quitter."

Drefu the Wocky put the book on the table and looked up with a wide vile grin. "So much of that, prince of Qasala. You're going down one way or another. Why are you still standing there, ready to fight?"

Jazan's look could've melted glass at that point. "Because I am ready to fight. For Qasala. For its people. For my friends. For myself. For this land's past, present and future, however dusty and dull that future may be," the energy shields turned into one blinding sphere at that moment, "_and that's a fact._"

Drefu shrugged, the look on his face almost compassionate, then he raised his hand and with a single second formed an identical energy shield of magic. He let it grow for a moment and then, stooping lower to the ground, attacked Jazan with it.

There was no sound, unless you counted quiet sizzling. The two brothers, ducking behind the bookshelf and Nightsteed, could see that Jazan said something quietly right before the whole library went bright white. They couldn't hear the word, but it was clearly understandable nevertheless.

"Qasala."

It seemed to take forever, but eventually the light faded. Shad removed his paws from the eyes and Saura turned to look at the room again. For a moment it looked blurry, but then Nightsteed loosened up, turning remarkably wrinklier at that, and the hazy shield dropped, both in front of them and in front of all the shelves.

"Doofuses," he muttered. "As if this was a bar fight or something..." The air smelled of gunpowder. Jazan was still standing, an icy look on his face, though the shields around his fists were gone. So was the concentrating magic around his robe.

Drefu blinked in obvious confusion. "But... that should've incinerated you!"

"Should," Jazan agreed as his face developed a dark grin. The magic picked up again all of a sudden. "Now listen to me, usurper. You say that you're stronger than me." His black robe started fluttering in unseen wind again. "Stronger than Nightsteed." New bright blue energy shields formed around his hands, which weren't clenched any more. "Stronger than any other mage you can think of. But you forgot one main rule of magic." His eyes narrowed and a mask of rage slid over his face. "You forgot your _heart!_"

Even Shad, Saura, and Harfu could feel the power behind Jazan's strike. It came from everywhere, attacked from every corner, emerged from the very heart of the city, drained strength from each and every Neopet on the streets, gave the prince its total support and concentrated into a blow that was more mental than physical. It shook the whole city, though nothing moved seemingly.

That attack didn't last that long. When the light faded and they opened their eyes again, Nightsteed shook his bony head, muttering, "Ow. My brain."

The hazy curtains of protective shield fell again, revealing Jazan who stood there in the middle of the floor, fists clenched, breathing heavily because of the overload of energy and emotions. He grunted something, shook himself, and then turned to look at his audience.

"You okay, Nightsteed?" he asked.

The Uni raised his head, grinning. "Never better. I may be old, but I'm not too old for simple protective shields." He tilted his head, looking at the other side of the room where Drefu had stood. It was empty. No sign of anyone ever having stood or fought there.

"That's what blind ambition does to you," he remarked. "Built his whole plan on the fact that the bond between Qasala and its ruler is getting weaker, and then tries to attack that bond when it's stronger than ever."

"He relied on his own strength, and he indeed was stronger than the two of us together," said the Kyrii. "But, well... I had backup. Qasala helped me." He smiled, suddenly switching back to his normal, white-robed form.

"What happened to him?" asked Shad, curiously sniffing the boards where the Wocky had stood.

Jazan shrugged. "There's no telling. Maybe he's stuck in another dimension, maybe stuck in time – same thing, really; maybe he died. I don't know. One way or another, he's gone. And he won't be coming back, even if he finds a way, as now he knows that there's no way my bond with Qasala ever breaks, no matter how weak it may seem."

"It didn't seem, it _was_ weak," grunted the Uni. Jazan seemed sheepish for a moment, then turned to look at the two brothers and Harfu – to avoid the subject, it seemed.

"I'll have to thank you three," he said sincerely. "You may think that you did nothing and were just a pain in Nightsteed's neck-"

"Which is true," interjected Nightsteed.

"But your very presence was a huge support," finished the prince. "And you two," he looked at Shad and Saura, "aren't even Qasalans."

"We wouldn't have ended up in this in the first place if we had been locals," guessed Saura as Shad grinned widely, his tail thumping against the floor: "Does this mean that we get that curse off our backs?"

Jazan blinked. "Curse... oh boy, Nightsteed, you put the Curse of Suspicion on them?"

"I've been doing that to all tourists for the past two months," stated the Uni, his eyes narrowing, "and you didn't even notice until now, oh great prince and ruler of Qasala, thank you very much. Besides, the curse lifted a while ago, back when they volunteered to meet Deki despite the threat. That's how these things work."

"Hey," interrupted Harfu and kneeled hastily as everyone turned to look at him, "Your Highness," he glanced at Jazan, "sir," at Nightsteed; Shad and Saura got a look as well before the white Ixi finished: "Artus, that scholar. He was a part of that scheme and got away, but he can't be far yet."

Both mages nodded, then their eyes turned blank for a moment.

"Senses blocked," muttered Nightsteed. "Thought so."

"Can't you smell him?" Jazan asked Shad, who scowled.

"I can try. No promises, though. This palace is full of smells, especially the library."

"Might as well go out then," said Jazan. Despite just having been through a fierce battle, he seemed as calm as in the morning of the same day.

They stepped into the dark empty hallway, the main source of light being Nightsteed's hooves, and startled, seeing that it wasn't so empty after all. The slim figure looming against the blue night sky outside the window stepped closer into the light and bowed. It was Meira.

"Highness," she said, in a voice that awaited orders.

"Eh," began Jazan, shooting a sideways glance at Nightsteed. "You're..."

"Meira," said the Uni. "A palace maid and a relatively smart girl with a good head on her shoulders as I've noticed." He added a few under-the-breath-comments about attentive rulers in general, then asked: "Got anything to tell us? I see you do."

"Yes, sir." The Xweetok gazed at him, brown eyes gleaming in the dim light. "It's Artus, sir. I saw him in the hallways some ten minutes ago."

"Where did he go?" asked Jazan. Meira grimaced slightly, looking up at him.

"Well, he, uh... took a sword from a coat-of-arms in the hallway, sir. And he, um, went to Princess Nabile's rooms."

The Kyrii's face turned icy. "Nabile's rooms."

"Ooh, hostage drama," Shad muttered eagerly, then added in a louder voice: "Makes sense. He doesn't really have any other chance of getting out of here other than taking a hostage."

"He doesn't really have any other chance of getting to the local graveyard very fast," snapped the prince, marching off down the hallway. The others hurried after him.

--

"This'll be good." Shad grinned, earning glares from everyone else.

"The life of our princess is at stake here and you find it amusing?" hissed Harfu as they hurried down the corridors. Jazan wasn't directly running but he was very fast-paced nevertheless.

Nightsteed grumbled to himself. "Dunno, he's a newcomer. He doesn't know Nabile. As long as he keeps the sword _between_ them, fine, but the minute he puts in on her throat, I don't envy him."

They had come to a big oaken door in the meantime. It was richly carved and had a very impressive portico, apparently the rooms had been reserved for queens long before Nabile's time. Jazan simply whacked the door open, robes still flapping around his feet.

"...and the minute I get – there you are. Took you long enough," announced Nabile. "And it's my door you're kicking there, thank you very much."

She was standing in the middle of the thick Sakhmetian carpet, still fully dressed despite the late hour. Artus was facing her, pointing the tip of the old crooked sword at her neck. The room was lit by a few candles but generally looked like Nabile had just been reading a book before bedtime when the unwanted visitor had stormed in.

"Ah, Your Highness," said Artus, squinting at the troop in the doorway. He was still mainly keeping an eye on Nabile and now sidled towards the door to prevent her from rushing over. "How nice of you to join us."

"Great, now he's gonna go all supervillain," stated Shad. His yellow eyes were gleaming right near the floor, next to Jazan's white robe which was occasionally flashing black as the prince's anger was picking up. "They always do. The big boss is taken out and the little sidekick gets his chance to shine."

"I'm not some sidekick, you stupid brat!" bellowed the Acara. He was nothing like the nervous scholar now. "And you stay back or the princess gets it," he snapped, as Jazan had taken a step forward.

"Alright, alright," hissed the prince, who had in fact had no intention of stepping forward. "Stop pushing me, you morons!"

"Sorry," muttered Saura, backing against the door jamb and stretching himself to see better. Harfu and Meira were stretching their necks behind Jazan's back. Nightsteed was behind everyone else, shaking his head and moaning to himself.

The look on Artus's face changed. It was now the look of a cornered beast. The door was blocked and there was a mob outside and he was only a small-scale mage. "I only wish to leave the city, Highness," he pleaded. "I'll never show my face here again. I promise."

"Promise, eh? What did Drefu promise you?" asked the prince, his eyes darting from Artus to Nabile and back again. "Wealth? Knowledge? The spot of an advisor? They never keep their promises, kid, don't you know? You were just a tool."

"No!" snapped the island Acara, the sword now slightly trembling in his hand. Nabile, whose throat was very close to the pointy end of the trembling blade, shot a stern glare at Jazan.

"I could take you out where you stand, and you wouldn't have the time to harm her," said Jazan, his voice now calmer and the robe back to fully white.

"Then why haven't you done it yet?" barked the Acara with a lopsided grin, taking a step closer to the princess. The sword was still trembling.

Saura looked back at Nightsteed, who seemed confused. But he did nothing at the moment, waiting to see what Jazan would do.

The prince simply stepped back, causing some nervous stumbling behind him. "You want to leave? Fine. Just don't harm Nabile."

Artus grinned with relief, then darted forward and grabbed Nabile, sealing her arms behind her back with one hand and using the other hand to set the sword against her throat. "Oh, don't worry, Your Highness. I'll leave her somewhere in the desert when I'm far enough."

"You little...!" fumed Nabile, bending her head backwards to get as far away from the sword as possible. She struggled for a second, then leaped in the air, using Artus's grasp as a point of support, and whacked backwards with both feet. It was a blind kick, but the Acara was right behind her anyway.

Artus gave a quiet sound that more or less went 'ghngh' and collapsed on the floor. The sword landed with a thump.

"Told you," stated Nightsteed.

"And told you it'd be fun," stated Shad, grinning widely. Nabile brushed over the carpet to face her husband.

"He was right," she stated, eyes narrowing. "And you were right. Why didn't you take him out while he was still facing me?"

Now Jazan really grinned. "It was more interesting to watch you handle the situation."

The Ixi stared at him, then huffed and punched him in the arm. Jazan only laughed.

"Highness," began a hesitant voice and the Kyrii looked back at Harfu's worried face. "I, uh, would like to apologize. I was of no use today. I came along with the wish to help but I was just a burden."

"Goodie, one of those sulky-guilty-types again," grumbled Nightsteed. "You did fine, kid. You came to support, and you supported, didn't you? Fancy sword tricks would've gotten you killed. You saw what we faced today."

Jazan smiled. "What he said. You did support, Harfu. You came along, to face something more powerful one could ever imagine. That's more support that sword tricks."

"Cute," said Nabile, nudging the cowering figure of Artus on the floor. "I'd actually be very grateful if you were so supportive right now to get rid of him."

"Yes, Highness," nodded the white Ixi, hurrying in and picking the Acara up. "Where do I take him?"

Jazan and Nightsteed exchanged glances. "The catacombs wouldn't hold him," said the Uni.

"Spells do," grunted Jazan, raising his arm. Nothing seemed to change, but a shade of hopelessness slid over the Acara's face as the spell took over. "Now all we have is Deki to take care of."

"Highness, if you please," said Harfu as they went back through the dark hallways, Artus still hanging on his hooves, "Deki's not a bad guy. I know him. He may have fooled us but he's not bad at heart."

"Even if so, you realize that he has no place in this city after tonight," grunted Nightsteed in Jazan's stead. "The people of Qasala know about the deal. They won't trust him any more."

Harfu nodded grimly and fell quiet for the whole way back to the staircase in front of the palace. When they came outside, the square silenced. It hadn't been loud to start with, but some angry murmuring was unavoidable. Deki was floating in the air, a faint bluish energy sphere surrounding him. He probably would've flown off a while ago if many of the Qasalans hadn't had wings. Now they fluttered all around him, glaring fiercely, unable to break through the sphere but still able to prevent him from escaping.

"Deki," called Jazan, and the sphere descended, followed by more angry murmuring and Scordrax's curious sniffing. The gigantic Scorchio was sitting next to the staircase, both heads raised high, and bent his necks down to gaze at the sphere as it came down.

"So it's over," said Deki as he landed. He didn't sound bitter, just somewhat sulky.

"Did you have any plans for what you'd do when everything fails?" asked Jazan.

The Scorchio grinned faintly. "Just counting on your mercy, Your Highness."

Jazan seemed thoughtful. "Well. Right now the catacombs are the only option." He flicked his fingers absently and Deki, developing the same hopeless gaze as Artus had, collapsed on the staircase, his body refusing to obey him now. "And, no offence, Harfu, but Nightsteed will be taking him down there. You're taking care of Artus. Shoo, both of you."

"You sure you can handle these issues without me backing you up?" Nightsteed joshed, shifting Deki's limp body on his back. Jazan shot a half-smile, half-glare at him before turning to the mob on the square. They had started murmuring again, but now everyone fell quiet.

"People of Qasala," Jazan's deep voice boomed over the square.

"Hoo boy, now he's going to get all prince-ish," muttered Shad. "Do we really need to stick around?"

Saura looked around. Harfu and Nightsteed had disappeared into the palace. Meira and Nabile were still there, but near the doorway, in the shadow of the pillars. The two brothers were standing pretty much alone next to the prince.

"Ehh," he did, sidling towards the palace wall.

"Please stay," said Jazan, and the two froze where they stood. "And Nabile, and Meira, and everyone on this square. I owe you all," he spread his arms, "my sincerest apologies. And my deepest gratitude."

"Mrawgh," mumbled Shad, scorching in the curious gaze of thousands of citizens and edging closer to the palace wall. Saura did the same.

And Jazan spoke. It was a short, yet moving speech, a speech that thanked everyone in Qasala simply for being Qasalans, for staying true to the city and loyal to its values. He barely explained the showdown with Drefu Arafat but he did mention the name and the reasons, causing a surprised and disbelieving rumble. He thanked everyone for their support, causing sheepish muttering as everyone remembered their recent accusations all too well. And he gave them a sincere, binding promise. A promise to be a good leader who never forgets his duties again.

By the time he finished, Shad and Saura had backed next to the girls in the shade of the pillar, all too aware of the curious masses. Those tourists had seen things. They had been there. They knew first-hand what had happened.

"And let me direct your attention to those two tourists," began Jazan, turning around.

"I'm already getting more attention than I like, thanks very much," barked Shad, drooping against the stones. "And I ain't accepting no awards or something like that. We did nothing remarkable, y'hear?"

"Well, I beg to differ," Jazan smiled, "but if you want no redundant attention, then I understand. I just want you both to know that I'm very thankful."

"No problem, Highness, just don't declare us local heroes or anything or we'll never be able to come to Qasala as tourists again without being overrun by a mob," stated the Lupe, his tail waving on the stones.

Jazan burst into laughter. It was a happy, full-hearted, releasing laughter, something the city of Qasala hadn't heard for a very long time now. A cheer rose from the crowd, rocketed across the square and turned into a roar of joy.

"I feel so happy for them," said Nabile. The brothers turned to look at her. "They're the citizens of a forgotten city. The people of 'that other place in Lost Desert'. And still they're proud and happy for their city and their ruler."

"They have all the reason to be." Meira smiled.

"People!" called Jazan, raising both hands and calming the crowd down a bit. "It's getting late. You should all go to sleep."

"Are you kidding?" a voice emerged from the people. "You just whooped some evil mage's behind. This calls for a celebration!" That statement was greeted with more cheers and some Neopets hurried off to wheel out barrels of Juppie juice and Qandos.

"There goes the sleeping schedule of my people," said Jazan, coming to the little group by the pillar. "But I guess they have all the reason for it. Shall we go too?"

The others stared at him.

"What, to party with the people?" asked Nabile.

"Why not?" Jazan grinned. "You all said that I've been away from the people for too long. And I think we have enough Coffee of the Dead for now."

xxx

When Harfu and Nightsteed came back, the staircase was empty but the whole square was crowded. Fires had been lit here and there to roast huge chunks of meat, music was playing and the people were happily dancing through the night.

"This whole show ended better than I expected," admitted Nightsteed, coming down to the crowd where Shad and Saura were sitting on the last step, both munching on a pie. "Where's Jazan?"

"The show's just beginning." Shad grinned with his mouth full and pointed at a row of konga where Jazan whirled around in the middle of the row, white robe seeming orange in the blaze of the big fires.

Nightsteed's eyebrow twitched. "From one extreme to the other. But it's a good sign, I suppose."

Shad gulped down the mouthful and looked up at him. "What I don't get is how this was all so... easy. I mean, here we had Jazan mentally drifting away from Qasala and causing all that trouble, and the minute Scordrax starts wreaking havoc, he's back in action and better than ever. What did you tell him to achieve that?"

The Uni grinned vaguely and turned his head away. "Not much. He didn't need much. Until that point he had never believed that there actually was a threat. When your twenty-ton pet starts burning down the city, it doesn't get much more threatening than that. Drefu underestimated him greatly. Playing with mental levels is always tricky, as there are simply too many levels."

"What, so Drefu would actually never have been able to break Jazan's bond with Qasala?" asked Saura, looking up too.

Nightsteed scowled at him. "Do you ever pay attention? Of course he would. If Qasala's support to Jazan had ceased, he wouldn't have had any mental power to withstand the attack. Now if you'll excuse me, I see Tchea fruits over there..."

That night was long, and beat the Night Bazaar by a long run. A lot of food was eaten, a lot of music was played, many dances were danced and nobody cared that there were no wealthy tourists in town. They had two tourists who were as good as locals now, and they had their home.

xxx

Not all of them had Coffee of the Dead, though, so the morning of the next day was as quiet as the previous one had been.

"Suits me," stated Saura, handing the ribcage cup back to Meira. "That way we can leave today without getting run over. I like those Qasalans but I've had enough patting on the back for one day."

They were sitting around the breakfast table, the sun shining in through the high windows as usually. The delegates and advisors were curiously and as politely as possible gazing at the royal end of the table where Meira had brought Jazan, Nabile and the two brothers some Coffee of the Dead. Nightsteed had used his own sources earlier that day.

"Planning to leave so soon?" asked Nabile.

"Well," said Shad, licking stew off his jaws as he had fallen asleep straight into his plate, "we've been here for two days, fulfilled our goal of, erm, bringing the two malicious spellbooks down here, and helped save Qasala or so the prince claims. I think we can maybe do some very quick sightseeing later this morning and then hit the road. It'll be a long journey."

"What will happen to Artus and Deki?" asked Saura.

"Already gone," said Jazan. "Nellera, the Faerie delegate left this morning, and we sent the two along to Faerieland with her. The Faeries know powerful magic; they're able to keep them under control. They'll probably work in Fyora's castle for the rest of their days."

"Reminded me, Highness," said Meira, who was still there with the tray. "Harfu requests himself to be transferred to Faerieland. Fyora's castle can always use good guards and he believes that it'll be a valuable experience for him."

"Ah," said Nightsteed in a friendly voice. "Friendship."

Meira blushed slightly. "I told him that Deki wasn't much more than a traitor, but he said that he was. That he was a friend."

"Well, I see no reason why we should deny the request." Jazan smiled. "Actually we should arrange an exchange instead of a transfer. Would be nice to see new faces around the city more often. Mmh, I need a new External Affairs... Khnumeran, Marago, do some thinking about it; I'll have a word with you about that later." The two advisors nodded. "And I should rearrange my schedule a little. I'd like to make it to this Friday's Night Bazaar. Meeting people is so... interesting."

The others, who remembered pretty well how Jazan had gotten sick because of drinking too much sweet Qando juice last night, grinned slightly.

"What about the spellbooks?" asked Saura. "Do you want to keep them? 'Cause I see no reason for taking them back and they'll probably be safe in your library."

Jazan nodded. "Yes, I'd like to keep them. Haven't really had a chance to read about the place my mother came from. Nightsteed, are we able to arrange some sort of a decent transport for our guests? We sent the two traitors off in a flying carriage but the heroes of Qasala are looking at weeks in a caravan."

The Uni scowled slightly. "Well, I'm definitely not flying them over myself, I need to stick around and make sure you won't get yourself in trouble." A wave of smiles spread over the table-company. "We should have a few carriages, yes. I'll look around for more or less awake volunteers after breakfast. Mystery Island, right?" The brothers nodded. "Faerieland's right on the way, might as well send Harfu off with them."

Jazan seemed thoughtful. "Now that I think about it, Scordrax doesn't really get all the exercise he needs..."

Nightsteed stared at him. "You're kidding me."

xxx

"Bye!" yelled Shad, waving frantically. "We'll definitely come again some day!"

"Shad, one can barely see the city by now." Saura grinned, sitting back on the red and golden seat. They were alone in the carriage; Harfu was outside by the coachman, a fellow palace guard who was leading Scordrax. The Scorchio was three times as big as the carriage so he had to be lead well in order for the carriage to fly straight. Qasala had indeed become a shiny golden and white spot in the middle of the desert by now, the river of Lost Desert was a glittering blue ribbon and the sea was already to be seen farther ahead.

"This didn't turn out so bad," stated the shadow Lupe, pulling his head in. "Shall we go again one day then?"

Saura thought of the two action-packed days, the curse, the threats, the intrigues, the battles, the magic, the suspicions... all eclipsed by the cheery people of Qasala, the royal couple, Nightsteed, Harfu, Meira, the gang in the Silver Scamander, even the stern gaze of queen Ara in the old dusty painting.

"I'd love to." He grinned.


End file.
